Computer security threat data collection and aggregation with user privacy protection

Abstract

An endpoint computer in an enterprise network is configured to detect computer security threat events, such as presence of a computer virus. Upon detection of a threat event, the endpoint computer generates computer security threat data for the threat event. The threat data may include user identifiable data that can be used to identify a user in the enterprise network. The endpoint computer encrypts the user identifiable data prior to sending the threat data to a smart protection network or to an enterprise server where threat data from various enterprise networks are collected for analysis. The endpoint computer may also encrypt an identifier for the threat data and provide the encrypted identifier to the smart protection network and to an enterprise server in the enterprise network. The enterprise server may use the encrypted identifier to retrieve the threat data from the smart protection network to generate user-specific reports.