Information management system
First Claim
1. An information management system comprising:
- a plurality of client workstations connected to a computer network, each workstation having a memory;
a data repository arranged to receive data from each of said client workstations;
an application stored in said memory of each workstation for transmitting outbound data to said computer network and receiving inbound data from said computer network;
policy data defining rules for the recording of data that may comprise part of a commercial transaction conducted between a client workstation and a third party across said computer network;
an analyzer, said analyzer analyzing, in conjunction with said policy data, at least one of said outbound data and said inbound data, identifying the existence of a commercial transaction occurring between a client workstation and a third party by analyzing said outbound or said inbound data, and causing transaction data that is all or part of said outbound data or said inbound data related to an identified commercial transaction to be stored in said data repository.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An information management system is described comprising one or more workstations running applications to allow a user of the workstation to connect to a network, such as the Internet. Each application has an analyzer, which monitors transmission data that the application is about to transmit to the network or about to receive from the network and which determines an appropriate action to take regarding that transmission data. Such actions may be extracting data from the transmission data, such as passwords and usernames, digital certificates or eCommerce transaction details for storage in a database; ensuring that the transmission data is transmitted at an encryption strength appropriate to the contents of the transmission data; determining whether a check needs to be made as to whether a digital certificate received in transmission data is in force, and determining whether a transaction about to be made by a user of one of the workstations needs third party approval before it is made. The analyzer may consult a policy data containing a policy to govern the workstations in order to make its determination. The information management system provides many advantages in the eCommerce environment to on-line trading companies, who may benefit by being able to regulate the transactions made by their staff according to their instructions in a policy data, automatically maintain records of passwords and business conducted on-line, avoid paying for unnecessary checks on the validity of digital certificates and ensure that transmissions of data made by their staff are always protected at an agreed strength of encryption.
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Citations
84 Claims
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1. An information management system comprising:
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a plurality of client workstations connected to a computer network, each workstation having a memory; a data repository arranged to receive data from each of said client workstations; an application stored in said memory of each workstation for transmitting outbound data to said computer network and receiving inbound data from said computer network; policy data defining rules for the recording of data that may comprise part of a commercial transaction conducted between a client workstation and a third party across said computer network; an analyzer, said analyzer analyzing, in conjunction with said policy data, at least one of said outbound data and said inbound data, identifying the existence of a commercial transaction occurring between a client workstation and a third party by analyzing said outbound or said inbound data, and causing transaction data that is all or part of said outbound data or said inbound data related to an identified commercial transaction to be stored in said data repository. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42)
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43. A method of managing information comprising the steps of:
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providing a plurality of client workstations connected to a computer network, each workstation having a memory; providing a data repository arranged to receive data from each of said client workstations; providing an application stored in said memory of each workstation for transmitting outbound data to said computer network and receiving inbound data from said computer network; providing policy data defining rules for the recording of data that may comprise part of a commercial transaction conducted between a client workstation and a third party across said computer network; and analyzing, at least one of said outbound data and said inbound data to identify, with reference to said rules of said policy data, the existence of a commercial transaction occurring between a client workstation and a third party; and storing transaction data that is all or part of said outbound data or said inbound data related to an identified commercial transaction in said data repository. - View Dependent Claims (44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84)
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69. The method of 68 wherein said analyzing step includes determining the nature of the commercial transaction by identifying in said outbound data and said inbound data one or more indicators, said indicators being defined in said rules of said policy data, and being one or more of:
- the address of the network location to which said data that may be part of a commercial transaction is transmitted or from which it is received;
part of the data path to the network location to which said transaction data is transmitted or from which it is received;
account codes;
reference numbers;
credit card numbers;
digital certificates and pre-determined keywords.
- the address of the network location to which said data that may be part of a commercial transaction is transmitted or from which it is received;
Specification