Identifying and processing confidential information on network endpoints

• US 7,756,843 B1
• Filed: 05/25/2006
• Issued: 07/13/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/25/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Juniper Networks Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Juniper Networks Incorporated
• Inventors: Palmer, Matthew
• Primary Examiner(s): Cottingham; John R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Badawi; Sherief
• Application Number:
  US11/420,275
• Time in Patent Office: 1,510 Days
• Field of Search: 707/3, 707/100, 707/1, 707/4, 726/26, 726/1, 713/182
• US Class Current: 707/694
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/554 involving event detection and direct action
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/62 Protecting access to data via a platform, e.g. using keys or access control rules
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0245 Filtering by information in the payload
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 Entity profiles

Abstract

An automated method for identifying confidential information may include inputting a search term based on a set of policy rules into a search engine, and causing the search engine to perform a search based on the search term. The method may also include analyzing search results obtained from the search engine against the policy rules to identify the search results containing confidential information.

Claims

1. A computer-readable memory device including instructions executable by at least one processor, the computer-readable memory device comprising:

one or more instructions to determine an availability of a plurality of search engines in a device;

one or more instructions to select a search engine determined to be available from the plurality of search engines;

one or more instructions to input a search term based on a set of policy rules into the selected search engine and cause the selected search engine to perform a search of the device based on the search term and to output search results;

one or more instructions to analyze the search results output from the selected search engine against the set of policy rules; and

one or more instructions to identify the search results that include confidential information based on the analysis of the search results against the set of policy rules.

2. The computer-readable memory device of claim 1, further comprising:

one or more instructions to cause the selected search engine to perform the search on a periodic basis, when a user closes an application in the device, or when the user stops typing information into the device.

3. The computer-readable memory device of claim 1, further comprising:

one or more instructions to form or update a list of documents that violate the set of policy rules based on the identified search results that include confidential information.

4. The computer-readable memory device of claim 1, further comprising:

one or more instructions to determine whether one of the search results is included in a list of documents that violate the set of policy rules;

one or more instructions to use the one of the search results identified as containing confidential information but not included in the list of documents that violate the set of policy rules to formulate updated policy rules; and

one or more instructions to transmit the updated policy rules.

5. The computer-readable memory device of claim 4, further comprising:

one or more instructions to selectively permit transmission of a document included in the list of documents that violate the set of policy rules and permit transmission of a document not included in the list of documents that violate the set of policy rules.

6. The computer-readable memory device of claim 4, further comprising:

one or more instructions to determine whether a document violates the updated policy rules; and

one or more instructions to selectively permit transmission of the document when the document violates the updated policy rules, and permit transmission of the document when the document does not violate the updated policy rules.

7. The computer-readable memory device of claim 1, further comprising:

one or more instructions to transmit the identified search results that include confidential information to an external device for formulating updated policy rules.

8. An automated method for identifying confidential information, performed by a computing device, the method comprising:

inputting, by a processor of the computing device, a search term based on a set of policy rules into a search engine;

causing, by the processor, the search engine to perform a search based on the search term;

analyzing, by the processor, search results obtained from the search engine against the set of policy rules to identify one of the search results that includes confidential information;

determining, by the processor, whether the one of the search results is included in a list of documents that violate the set of policy rules; and

updating, by the processor and when it is determined that the one of the search results is not included in the list of documents that violate the set of policy rules, the list to include the one of the search results.

9. The automated method of claim 8, further comprising:

causing the search engine to perform the search on a periodic basis, when a user closes an application in the computing device, or when the user stops typing into the computing device.

10. The automated method of claim 8, further comprising:

transmitting the one of the search results identified as including confidential information to an external device for formulating updated policy rules.

11. The automated method of claim 8, further comprising:

repeatedly inputting another search term based on the set of policy rules into the search engine and causing the search engine to perform another search based on the other search term.

12. The automated method of claim 8, further comprising:

using the one of the search results that includes confidential information but not included in the list of documents that violate the set of policy rules to formulate updated policy rules; and

transmitting the updated policy rules.

13. The automated method of claim 12, further comprising:

selectively permitting transmission of a document included in the list of documents that violate the set of policy rules and permitting transmission of a document not included in the list of documents that violate the set of policy rules.

14. The automated method of claim 12, further comprising:

determining whether a document violates the updated policy rules; and

selectively permitting transmission of the document when the document violates the updated policy rules and permitting transmission of the document when the document does not violate the updated policy rules.