Method and apparatus to report policy violations in messages

• US 20050027723A1
• Filed: 07/15/2004
• Published: 02/03/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 09/18/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CA, Inc. (d/b/a CA Technologies) (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Symantec Corporation (NortonLifeLock Inc.)
• Inventors: Chen, Hai, Wolfe, Michael R., Ansanelli, Joseph, Jones, Chris, Rowney, Kevin T.
• Granted Patent: US 7,886,359 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/334 Query execution G06F16/335 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]

Abstract

A method and apparatus for reporting policy violations in messages is described. In one embodiment, a violation is identified by detecting fragments in a message that match information from any one or more rows within a tabular structure of source data. The fragments that match this information are then specified as part of reporting the violation.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

identifying a violation by detecting fragments in a message that match information from any one or more rows within a tabular structure of source data; and

specifying, as part of reporting the violation, the fragments that match the information from any one or more rows within the tabular structure.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the matching fragments are specified via any one of a user interface and a structured output format.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the reporting further specifies at least one of a message component containing the matching fragments, the source data, the one or more rows within the tabular data structure, a number of the one or more rows within the tabular data structure, a policy being violated, and one or more rules of the policy being violated.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein identifying the violation comprises:

searching the message for the fragments that contain one or more sub-sets of tokens, each of the one or more sub-sets of tokens matching information from a single row within the tabular data structure; and

determining that the message violates a predefined policy.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the predefined policy comprises at least one rule selected from the group consisting of one or more rules pertaining to the source data, a rule specifying an expression pattern, a rule specifying a message attachment type, a rule specifying a message attachment size, a rule specifying a sender identifier pattern, a rule specifying a recipient identifier pattern, a rule specifying keywords, a rule specifying a file attachment name pattern, a rule specifying a protocol to carry the message, and a rule specifying a newsgroup name.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein specifying, as part of reporting the violation, the fragments comprises highlighting the matching fragments on the screen.

7. The method of claim 6 further comprising:

providing a link from the matching fragments highlighted on the screen to the message containing the matching fragments.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein specifying, as part of reporting the violation, the fragments comprises:

determining a permission level of a user with respect to access to the source data; and

presenting information pertaining to the matching fragments in accordance with the permission level of the user

9. The method of claim 8 wherein presenting information pertaining to the matching fragments comprises:

notifying the user about the matching fragments without displaying the matching fragments to the user.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein presenting information pertaining to the matching fragments comprises:

identifying, to the user, columns within the tabular data structure that contain data matching the fragments from the message, without displaying the matching fragments to the user.

11. A method comprising:

detecting, in a message, a plurality of fragments that matches information from any one or more rows within a tabular structure of source data; and

identifying the plurality of fragments to a user.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the plurality of fragments are identified to the user via any one of a user interface and a structured output format.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein identifying the plurality of fragments to the user comprises highlighting the plurality of fragments on the screen.

14. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

identifying to the user at least one of a message component containing the matching fragments, the source data, the one or more rows within the tabular data structure, and a number of the one or more rows within the tabular data structure.

15. The method of claim 11 wherein detecting in the message the plurality of fragments comprises:

searching the message for the plurality of fragments that contains one or more sub-sets of tokens, each of the one or more sub-sets of tokens matching information from a single row within the tabular data structure; and

determining that the message violates a predefined policy.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising:

identifying the predefined policy to the user.

17. The method of claim 15 further comprising:

identifying one or more rules of the predefined policy to the user.

18. The method of claim 15 wherein the predefined policy comprises at least one rule selected from the group consisting of one or more rules pertaining to the source data, a rule specifying an expression pattern, a rule specifying a message attachment type, a rule specifying a message attachment size, a rule specifying a sender identifier pattern, a rule specifying a recipient identifier pattern, a rule specifying keywords, a rule specifying a file attachment name pattern, a rule specifying a protocol to carry the message, and a rule specifying a newsgroup name.

19. The method of claim 13 further comprising:

providing a link from the plurality of fragments highlighted on the screen to the message containing the plurality of fragments.

20. The method of claim 11 wherein identifying the plurality of fragments to the user comprises:

determining a permission level of the user with respect to access to the source data; and

presenting information pertaining to the plurality of fragments in accordance with the permission level of the user.

21. The method of claim 20 wherein presenting information pertaining to the plurality of fragments comprises:

notifying the user about the plurality of fragments without displaying the plurality of fragments to the user.

22. The method of claim 20 wherein presenting information pertaining to the plurality of fragments comprises:

identifying, to the user, columns within the tabular data structure that contain data matching the plurality of fragments from the message, without displaying the plurality of fragments to the user.

23. A method comprising:

detecting, in a message, a plurality of tokens that violate a set of rules;

displaying the plurality of tokens to a user; and

upon receiving a user selection of one of the plurality of tokens, displaying one or more rules within the set that are violated by the one of the plurality of tokens.

24. The method of claim 23 wherein the user selection of the one of the plurality of tokens is received when the user places a cursor over the one of the plurality of tokens.

25. The method of claim 23 wherein the set of rules are selected from the group consisting of rules pertaining to components of source data having a tabular structure, a rule specifying an expression pattern, a rule specifying message attachment types, a rule specifying a message attachment size, a rule specifying a recipient identifier pattern, a rule specifying a sender identifier pattern, a rule specifying keywords, a rule specifying a file attachment name pattern, a rule specifying a protocol to carry the message, and a rule specifying a newsgroup name.

26. The method of claim 23 further comprising:

upon receiving the user selection of one of the plurality of tokens, displaying a name of a column from source data that has data matching the one of the plurality of columns from the message.

27. The method of claim 23 further comprising:

searching the message for the plurality of tokens that contain one or more sub-sets of tokens, each of the one or more sub-sets of tokens matching information from a single row within a tabular data structure of source data; and

determining that the message violates a predefined policy containing the set of rules.

28. The method of claim 23 wherein displaying the plurality of tokens to the user comprises highlighting the matching fragments on the screen.

29. The method of claim 23 further comprising:

providing a link from the plurality of tokens to content of the message.

30. A system comprising:

a violation detector to identify a violation by detecting fragments in a message that match information from any one or more rows within a tabular structure of source data; and

a reporting tool to specify the fragments that match the information from any one or more rows within the tabular structure.

31. The system of claim 30 further comprising a user interface to specify the matching fragments.

32. The system of claim 30 wherein the reporting tool is further to specify at least one of a message component containing the matching fragments, the source data, the one or more rows within the tabular data structure, a number of the one or more rows within the tabular data structure, a policy being violated, and one or more rules of the policy being violated.

33. The system of claim 30 wherein a policy being violated comprises at least one rule selected from the group consisting of one or more rules pertaining to the source data, a rule specifying an expression pattern, a rule specifying a message attachment type, a rule specifying a message attachment size, a rule specifying a sender identifier pattern, a rule specifying a recipient identifier pattern, a rule specifying keywords, a rule specifying a file attachment name pattern, a rule specifying a protocol to carry the message, and a rule specifying a newsgroup name.

34. The system of claim 30 wherein the reporting tool is to highlight the matching fragments on the screen.

35. The system of claim 30 wherein the reporting tool is to specify the fragments by determining a permission level of a user with respect to access to the source data, and presenting information pertaining to the matching fragments in accordance with the permission level of the user.

36. A system comprising:

a violation detector to detect, in a message, a plurality of fragments that matches information from any one or more rows within a tabular structure of source data; and

a reporting tool to identify the plurality of fragments to a user.

37. The system of claim 36 further comprising a user interface to identify the plurality of fragments to the user.

38. The system of claim 36 wherein the reporting tool is further to identify to the user at least one of a message component containing the matching fragments, the source data, the one or more rows within the tabular data structure, and a number of the one or more rows within the tabular data structure.

39. The system of claim 36 wherein a predefined policy being violated comprises at least one rule selected from the group consisting of one or more rules pertaining to the source data, a rule specifying an expression pattern, a rule specifying a message attachment type, a rule specifying a message attachment size, a rule specifying a sender identifier pattern, a rule specifying a recipient identifier pattern, a rule specifying keywords, a rule specifying a file attachment name pattern, a rule specifying a protocol to carry the message, and a rule specifying a newsgroup name.

40. The system of claim 36 wherein the reporting tool identifies the plurality of fragments to the user by determining a permission level of the user with respect to access to the source data, and presenting information pertaining to the plurality of fragments in accordance with the permission level of the user.

41. A system comprising:

a violation detector to detect, in a message, a plurality of tokens that violate a set of rules; and

a user interface to display the plurality of tokens to a user, and to display one or more rules within the set that are violated by one of the plurality of tokens upon receiving a user selection of the one of the plurality of tokens.

42. The system of claim 41 wherein the set of rules are selected from the group consisting of rules pertaining to components of source data having a tabular structure, a rule specifying an expression pattern, a rule specifying message attachment types, a rule specifying a message attachment size, a rule specifying a recipient identifier pattern, a rule specifying a sender identifier pattern, a rule specifying keywords, a rule specifying a file attachment name pattern, a rule specifying a protocol to carry the message, and a rule specifying a newsgroup name.

43. The system of claim 41 wherein the user interface is further to display a name of a column from source data that has data matching one of the plurality of columns from the message upon receiving the user selection of the one of the plurality of tokens.

44. The system of claim 41 wherein the user interface is to highlight the matching fragments on the screen.

45. The system of claim 41 wherein the user interface is to provide a link from the plurality of tokens to content of the message.

46. An apparatus comprising:

means for identifying a violation by detecting fragments in a message that match information from any one or more rows within a tabular structure of source data; and

means for specifying, as part of reporting the violation, the fragments that match the information from any one or more rows within the tabular structure.

47. An apparatus comprising:

means for detecting, in a message, a plurality of fragments that matches information from any one or more rows within a tabular structure of source data; and

means for identifying the plurality of fragments to a user.

48. An apparatus comprising:

means for detecting, in a message, a plurality of tokens that violate a set of rules;

means for displaying the plurality of tokens to a user; and

means for displaying one or more rules within the set that are violated by one of the plurality of tokens upon receiving a user selection of the one of the plurality of tokens.

49. A computer readable medium that provides instructions, which when executed on a processor cause the processor to perform a method comprising:

identifying a violation by detecting fragments in a message that match information from any one or more rows within a tabular structure of source data; and

specifying, as part of reporting the violation, the fragments that match the information from any one or more rows within the tabular structure

50. A computer readable medium that provides instructions, which when executed on a processor cause the processor to perform a method comprising:

detecting, in a message, a plurality of fragments that matches information from any one or more rows within a tabular structure of source data; and

identifying the plurality of fragments to a user.

51. A computer readable medium that provides instructions, which when executed on a processor cause the processor to perform a method comprising:

detecting, in a message, a plurality of tokens that violate a set of rules;

displaying the plurality of tokens to a user; and

upon receiving a user selection of one of the plurality of tokens, displaying one or more rules within the set that are violated by the one of the plurality of tokens