Data security and privacy in computing systems is of utmost concern to many companies and enterprises. With many points of access into such enterprise computing systems, it is crucial for these systems to have the capability to authenticate remote users and computing devices that establish connections to the enterprise systems and, once connected, to ensure that a secure, authenticated connection is maintained throughout the duration of a communication session. For example, many companies offer online text chat applications on their websites that enable users at remote computing devices to connect via the internet with, e.g., a computing resource operated by a service representative to establish a live chat session with the representative to obtain information and other services—including potentially sensitive or secure data—from the company. Such chat sessions are typically secured by authenticating the remote computing device and/or user (e.g., using electronic credentials) prior to or at the same time as the communication session is established and the authentication persists throughout the session. One example of such authentication is a user logging into a secure website and then accessing a chat application to establish a connection with a chat service of the company that operates the website. In such an example, the chat application can automatically import the authentication credentials from the website session to the chat application (e.g., so that the user does not need to re-enter authentication credentials).
In certain circumstances, the authentication of the chat session can be lost—e.g., due to the user logging out of the secured website, due to the expiration of authentication credentials, due to page navigation that changes the user's authentication status, and the like—but the chat session itself continues. In these scenarios, the representative is typically not aware that the chat session is no longer authenticated and the representative may erroneously continue to provide secured or sensitive information to the user despite the lack of proper authentication. In another example, when authentication of the chat session is lost, the enterprise computing resource can simply disconnect the chat session abruptly without advising the representative or the user. As a result, the user must then establish a new chat session and re-authenticate to the enterprise system, resulting in an additional computing resource burden on the enterprise system and delays in the chat session.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds