UNIFIED CONTENT SCANNING AND REPORTING ENGINE

• US 20110289579A1
• Filed: 12/06/2010
• Published: 11/24/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/07/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Bloomberg Finance LP (Bloomberg LP)
• Original Assignee: Agent Smith Pty., Ltd.
• Inventors: Davis, Trent H C, Thorne, Stephen James, Brotchie, James Peter
• Granted Patent: US 9,313,173 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/12
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/554 involving event detection and direct action
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0245 Filtering by information in the payload
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/565 Conversion or adaptation of application format or content adding application control or application functional data H04L67/561

Abstract

A method of unified content scanning in which content is deconstructed into base formats so as to be presented to content filters in a common format. The base formats include text, image and audio. The invention also includes a system of unified content scanning and a gateway appliance embodying the method of unified content scanning.

Claims

1. A method of unified content scanning comprising:

identifying an electronic communication;

converting the electronic communication to a common format;

analysing the electronic communication in the common format to identify restricted content; and

blocking or modifying the restricted content.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of identifying includes checking the electronic communication for identifying patterns in a data stream.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of converting includes deconstructing the electronic communication into base formats.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of analysing includes filtering the common format using content filters.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the content filters may be selected from one or more of:

a lexicon of inappropriate words;

data templates;

flesh tone filters; and

personal information templates.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of converting is performed by an application awareness engine configured to:

receive content;

parse the content to identify type; and

deconstruct the content into base formats.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the base formats include text, image and audio.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of converting includes the step of deconstructing the content into a content tree of base format.

9. The method of claim 8 further including the step of reconstructing the content from the content tree.

18. The method of claim 6 wherein the base formats include text, image and audio.

10. A gateway appliance comprising:

a processor; and

memory containing an instruction set causing the processor to;

identify electronic communications passing through the gateway appliance; and

convert the electronic communications to a common format using an application awareness engine.

11. The gateway appliance of claim 10 wherein the application awareness engine is configured to:

receive content;

parse the content to identify type; and

deconstruct the content into base formats.

12. The gateway appliance of claim 11 wherein the base formats include text, image and audio.

13. The gateway appliance of claim 10 further comprising a content scanning engine that scans the electronic communications in the common format for restricted content.

14. A unified content scanning system comprising:

an application awareness engine that identifies an electronic communication and converts the electronic communication to a common format; and

a content scanning engine that scans the electronic communications in the common format for restricted content.

15. The unified content scanning system of claim 14 further comprising:

a gateway appliance for a communication network;

a processor in the gateway appliance; and

memory in the gateway appliance containing an instruction set causing the processor to;

identify electronic communications passing through the gateway appliance; and

convert the electronic communications to a common format in the application awareness engine.

16. The unified content scanning system of claim 14 wherein the application awareness engine is configured to:

receive content;

parse the content to identify type; and

deconstruct the content into base formats.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the base formats include text, image and audio.