International Business Machines Corporation

Marco Imperia

Mauro Arcese

Paolo Ottaviano

Maximiliano Cammisa

Luigi Pichetti

Stefano Sidoti

Antonio Bagarolo

Gianluca Perreca

Pasquale Maria Mascolo Montenero

Giuseppe Ciano

Roberto Ragusa

Marco Secchi

Antonio Di Cocco

Leonardo Rosati

Alice Guidotti

Marco Mattia

Luca Gimondo

Stefano Manocchio

Genoveffa Nacchia

Sandro Piccinini

Daniele Morgantini

Roberto Piras

Serena Girardini

Andrea Ianni

Valeria Perticará

A method and system for controlling distribution of information items of a subject is proposed. The method and system comprises verifying compliance of a combination of new information items (to be received by a target computing system) and available information items (already available to the target computing system) with one or more sharing rules; a receipt of the new information items by the target computing system is controlled according to a result of this verification.

Controlling combination of information submitted to computing systems

Methods and systems for preventing phishing attacks using the domain name system are disclosed. A method includes: receiving, by a computing device, a domain name system (DNS) request comprising a domain name; determining, by the computing device, at least one domain name that is similar to the domain name; and sending, by the computing device, the at least one domain name that is similar to the domain name as a response to the DNS request.

Preventing phishing using DNS

A method for connecting a computing device to a computing arrangement. A proxy system determines, based on an address in a message specifying the computing arrangement, that a secure connection between the proxy system and the computing arrangement does not exist. The secure connection is dedicated for secure communication between the computing device and the computing arrangement. In response to determining that the secure connection does not exist, a new secure connection is established between the proxy system and the computing arrangement. Establishing the new secure connection includes instantiating a container and initiating an establishment of the secure connection by a protocol entity deployed within the container. The container is a virtual software object that encompasses all of the elements that are needed for an application to run within an operating system, which enables isolation of the container from one or more additional containers running within an operating system.

Secure network connections

A multiresolution optical code can be encoded. A first set of information and a second set of information to encode in an optical code is received. An optical code that encodes the first set of information in a plurality of dots is generated. Each dot of the plurality of dots is divided into a matrix of a first number of sub-dots by a second number of sub-dots, wherein each of the first number and the second number are integers equal to or greater than three and wherein this dividing creates a set of matrices of sub-dots. The second set of information is encoded in a plurality of the sub-dots of the set of matrices of sub-dots.

Multiresolution optical code

A method and system. One or more local parameters are collected from one or more corresponding endpoints. Each policy of one or more policies includes an indication of one or more activities for execution on the corresponding endpoints. At least one of the activities of the policies is conditioned by a condition based on one or more aggregated parameters. Each aggregated parameter depends on at least one of the one or more local parameters. The local parameters are aggregated into the aggregated parameters. Each aggregated parameter is distributed at least to the corresponding endpoints of each policy including any activity conditioned on the aggregated parameter. At least the corresponding policies are sent to the endpoints to cause each endpoint to apply each corresponding policy by collecting any aggregated parameters of the policy on the endpoint and executing the activities of the policy according to the corresponding aggregated parameters.

Control of activities executed by endpoints based on conditions involving aggregated parameters

A method for encoding information within a feature of a document. The method includes at least one computer processors determining information to encode within a document. The method further includes identifying a feature within the document to encode information within based, at least in part, on metadata of the document corresponding to the feature. The method further includes determining a set of geometric properties of one or more segments of the identified feature. The method further includes encoding, by one or more computer processors, a first bit of information of the determined information within a first segment of the feature within the document by modifying one or more geometric properties respectively associated with the first segment. The method further includes outputting the document with information encoded within the first segment.

Encoding information within features associated with a document

A method, computer program product, and a computer system for mitigating a fault in an information service comprised of multiple microservices includes a processor(s) obtaining a notification of a fault in the information service which includes logs tracking execution of the information service in a shared computing environment. The processor(s) generates a dependency data structure describing interdependencies between individual microservices with respect to each other. The processor(s) mitigates the fault by replacing a faulty microservice in the microservices represented in the dependency data structure; the faulty microservice includes program code with an issue resulting in the fault. To replace the faulty microservice, the processor(s) continuously monitors the information service and progressively replaces, in accordance with the interdependencies, each microservice represented in the dependency data structure with an earlier version of the microservice, halting replacements when no notification for the fault is obtained subsequent to a replacement of a given microservice.

Isolating service issues in a microservice architecture

A method and system. One or more policies is stored. Each policy includes activities for execution on corresponding endpoints. At least one of the activities of the policies is conditioned by a condition based on one or more aggregated parameters. Each aggregated parameter depends on one or more local parameters of a corresponding group of endpoints. The local parameters are collected from the corresponding endpoints. The local parameters are aggregated into the aggregated parameters. Each aggregated parameter is distributed at least to the corresponding endpoints of each policy including any activity conditioned on the aggregated parameter. At least the corresponding policies are sent to the endpoints to cause each endpoint to apply each corresponding policy by collecting any aggregated parameters of the policy on the endpoint and executing the activities of the policy according to the corresponding aggregated parameters.

A method and associated system for connecting a computing device to a computing arrangement. A message from the computing device is received. The message includes an address specifying the computing arrangement. The proxy system is a computer system. It is determined, based on the address, that a secure connection between the proxy system and the computing arrangement does not exist. The secure connection is dedicated for secure communication between the computing device and the computing arrangement. In response to the determining that the secure connection does not exist, a new secure connection is established between the proxy system and the computing arrangement.

Method, system, and computer program product for providing turn-by-turn directions to mobility impaired individuals. Movement of users associated with certain mobility classes are tracked to determine when the users deviate from certain geographical features, such as sections of sidewalk. In the event of a deviation, a reliability score for that geographical feature is decreased. When another user of the same mobility class requests directions and a candidate path uses the same geographical feature, the decreased reliability score is applied to that candidate path to provide the other user with an indication that the path may be difficult to traverse. The user may select a different candidate path with a higher reliability score.

Path calculator for users with mobility limitations

A method for application switching in an operating system may be provided. The method may comprise providing at least two active applications on the operating system, and providing a first list of actions related to the first active application, via a first interface, to an application switching manager, and providing a second list of actions related to the second active application, via a second interface, to the application switching manager. Additionally, the method may further comprise selecting an active application out of the at least two active applications together with selecting an action selected from the first list of actions for a first application or a second action for the second list for a second application using a graphical user interface.

Application switching in a graphical operating system

A system and computer program product for optimizing virtual storage in a virtual computer system including at least one virtual machine, each virtual machine being associated with one or more virtual disks. A target set of virtual machines among the virtual machines comprised in the virtual computer system is determined based on information related to the virtual machines and on shrinking constraints. For each virtual machine in the target set of virtual machines, each virtual disk associated with the virtual machine is identified. Furthermore, for each virtual disk associated with the virtual machine, the following occurs: the virtual disk is analyzed, a virtual disk saving quantity based on the virtual disk analysis is estimated, a resized virtual disk based on the estimated virtual disk saving quantity is generated, and the current virtual disk is replaced with the resized virtual disk.

Optimizing virtual storage size in a virtual computer system based on information related to virtual machines, user inputs and/or configuration parameters

A method for optimizing virtual storage in a virtual computer system including at least one virtual machine, each virtual machine being associated with one or more virtual disks. A target set of virtual machines among the virtual machines comprised in the virtual computer system is determined based on information related to the virtual machines and on shrinking constraints. For each virtual machine in the target set of virtual machines, each virtual disk associated with the virtual machine is identified. Furthermore, for each virtual disk associated with the virtual machine, the following occurs: the virtual disk is analyzed, a virtual disk saving quantity based on the virtual disk analysis is estimated, a resized virtual disk based on the estimated virtual disk saving quantity is generated, and the current virtual disk is replaced with the resized virtual disk.

A method, computer program product, and system for automating a test environment is provided. The method may include providing, at one or more computing devices, a superclass and a class-under-test, the superclass and the class-under-test having an inheritance chain therebetween. The method may further include inserting, via the computing device, an intermediate mock class between the superclass and the class-under-test. The method may also include automatically modifying, via the computing device, the class-under-test at runtime.

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Marco Imperia