Protecting Online Meeting Access Using Secure Personal Universal Resource Locators

Abstract

Access to online collaborative resources such as an online meeting, web conference, online chat room, an online video conference, an online audio conference, a collaboratively edited document, a collaborative browsing session, an online social networking group, or a web site is secured by providing a first user-specific URL to a first user for addressing collaborative resource; responsive to the first user accessing the first user-specific URL, granting by a computing system access to the collaborative event to the first user; and responsive to a second user accessing the first user-specific URL, preventing by a computing system access to the collaborative event to the second user. Optionally, time criteria for accessing the first user-specific URL may be used to invalidating the first user-specific URL, wherein access to the collaborative resource is disabled.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method for protecting online access to collaborative resources comprising:
 responsive to a first user attempting to access a collaborative resource at a universal resource locator (URL), determining by a computer that the URL contains an actual location of the collaborative resource obscured by an encrypted identifier for the first user in a domain name portion or a locator address portion of the URL; and   granting by a computer to the first user access to the collaborative resource located at actual location.   
     
     
         2 . The method as set forth in  claim 2  further comprising, responsive to a subsequent attempt to access the collaborative resource using the URL, preventing by a computer user access to the collaborative resource. 
     
     
         3 . The method as set forth in  claim 2 , further comprising:
 retrieving by a computer a time criteria for accessing the collaborative resource, wherein the first URL comprises a user-specific secure personal universal resource locator; and   responsive to detecting an elapsed time exceeding the time criteria, invalidating by a computer the first user-specific secure personal universal resource locator, wherein access to the collaborative resource is disabled.   
     
     
         4 . The method as set forth in  claim 1 , further comprising authenticating the first user by a computing system prior to the granting of access. 
     
     
         5 . The method as set forth in  claim 1  wherein the collaborative resource comprises at least one resource selected from the group consisting of an online meeting, web conference, online chat room, an online video conference, an online audio conference, a collaboratively edited document, a collaborative browsing session, an online social networking group, and a web site. 
     
     
         6 . The method as set forth in  claim 1  further comprising providing by a computer a collaborative resource management component that authenticates resource owners, resource invitations, and resource accesses utilizing secure communication and authentication protocols. 
     
     
         7 . The method as set forth in  claim 1  further comprising generating by a computer the user-specific secure personal universal resource locator by:
 generating a dynamic private key to be later used as a salt; 
 generating a hash value using a first user's system identifier, the salt, and a collaborative resource identifier, using a strong and secure encryption process; 
 generating the secure personal universal resource locator including the hash value as part of the universal resource locator; 
 caching the first user's system identifier, the salt and the collaborative resource identifier using a secure cache and using the hash value as a key into the cached elements; and 
 returning the secure personal universal resource locator to a collaborative session owner. 
 
     
     
         8 . The method as set forth in  claim 7  wherein the user's system identifier comprises at least one identifier selected from the group consisting of an electronic mail address, a telephone number, an online messaging identifier, a social networking alias name, and an employee number. 
     
     
         9 . The method as set forth in  claim 7  wherein the strong and secure encryption process comprises a method compliant with a U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology Secure Hash Algorithm specification. 
     
     
         10 . The method as set forth in  claim 7  wherein the caching the first user's system identifier comprises caching it for a limited period of time. 
     
     
         11 . A computer program product for protecting online access to collaborative resources comprising:
 a computer-readable memory device which is not a transitory signal per se; and   program instructions embodied by the computer-readable memory device for causing a processor to:
 responsive to a first user attempting to access a collaborative resource at a universal resource locator (URL), determine that the URL contains an actual location of the collaborative resource obscured by an encrypted identifier for the first user in a domain name portion or a locator address portion of the URL; and 
 grant to the first user access to the collaborative resource located at actual location. 
   
     
     
         12 . The computer program product as set forth in  claim 11  wherein the program instructions further comprise program instructions to cause a processor to, responsive to a subsequent attempt to access the collaborative resource using the URL, prevent user access to the collaborative resource. 
     
     
         13 . The computer program product as set forth in  claim 11 , wherein the program instructions further comprise program instructions to cause a processor to:
 retrieve a time criteria for accessing the collaborative resource, wherein the first URL comprises a user-specific secure personal universal resource locator; and   responsive to detecting an elapsed time exceeding the time criteria, invalidating by a computer the first user-specific secure personal universal resource locator, wherein access to the collaborative resource is disabled.   
     
     
         14 . The computer program product as set forth in  claim 11  wherein the collaborative resource comprises at least one resource selected from the group consisting of an online meeting, web conference, online chat room, an online video conference, an online audio conference, a collaboratively edited document, a collaborative browsing session, an online social networking group, and a web site. 
     
     
         15 . The computer program product as set forth in  claim 13  further comprising program instructions embodied by the computer-readable memory device for causing a processor to generate the user-specific secure personal universal resource locator by:
 generating a dynamic private key to be later used as a salt; 
 generating a hash value using a first user's system identifier, the salt, and a collaborative resource identifier, using a strong and secure encryption process; 
 generating the secure personal universal resource locator including the hash value as part of the universal resource locator; 
 caching the first user's system identifier, the salt and the collaborative resource identifier using a secure cache and using the hash value as a key into the cached elements; and 
 returning the secure personal universal resource locator to a collaborative session owner. 
 
     
     
         16 . A system for protecting online access to collaborative resources comprising:
 a computer processor;   a computer-readable memory device which is not a transitory signal per se, and which is accessible as program memory for the computer processor; and   program instructions embodied by the computer-readable memory device for causing the processor to:
 responsive to a first user attempting to access a collaborative resource at a universal resource locator (URL), determine that the URL contains an actual location of the collaborative resource obscured by an encrypted identifier for the first user in a domain name portion or a locator address portion of the URL; and 
 grant to the first user access to the collaborative resource located at actual location. 
   
     
     
         17 . The system as set forth in  claim 16  wherein the program instructions further comprise program instructions to cause a processor to, responsive to a subsequent attempt to access the collaborative resource using the URL, prevent user access to the collaborative resource. 
     
     
         18 . The system as set forth in  claim 12 , wherein the program instructions further comprise program instructions to cause a processor to:
 retrieve a time criteria for accessing the collaborative resource, wherein the first URL comprises a user-specific secure personal universal resource locator; and   responsive to detecting an elapsed time exceeding the time criteria, invalidating by a computer the first user-specific secure personal universal resource locator, wherein access to the collaborative resource is disabled.   
     
     
         19 . The system as set forth in  claim 12  wherein the collaborative resource comprises at least one resource selected from the group consisting of an online meeting, web conference, online chat room, an online video conference, an online audio conference, a collaboratively edited document, a collaborative browsing session, an online social networking group, and a web site. 
     
     
         20 . The system as set forth in  claim 19  further comprising program instructions embodied by the computer-readable memory device for causing a processor to generate the user-specific secure personal universal resource locator by:
 generating a dynamic private key to be later used as a salt; 
 generating a hash value using a first user's system identifier, the salt, and a collaborative resource identifier, using a strong and secure encryption process; 
 generating the secure personal universal resource locator including the hash value as part of the universal resource locator; 
 caching the first user's system identifier, the salt and the collaborative resource identifier using a secure cache and using the hash value as a key into the cached elements; and 
 returning the secure personal universal resource locator to a collaborative session owner.