Methods, systems, and computer program products for discreetly monitoring a communications network for sensitive information

• US 8,862,567 B2
• Filed: 10/21/2004
• Issued: 10/14/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/21/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Aaron, Jeffrey A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Beausoliel, Jr., Robert
• Assistant Examiner(s): BROMELL, ALEXANDRIA Y
• Application Number:
  US10/969,824
• Publication Number:
  US 20060100990A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,645 Days
• Field of Search: 707/707
• US Class Current: 707/707
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/50 Monitoring users, programs or devices to maintain the integrity of platforms, e.g. of processors, firmware or operating systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6263 during internet communication, e.g. revealing personal data from cookies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/00 Network architectures or network communication protocols for network security cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for secret or secure communication H04L9/00; network architectures or network communication protocols for wireless network security H04W12/00; security arrangements for protecting computers or computer systems against unauthorised activity G06F21/00

Abstract

A method for monitoring a network for information includes repeatedly searching the network for sensitive information about a subscriber. The network is intermittently searched for obscuring information during the repeated searching to thereby disguise the sensitive information that is the target of the repeated searching. Related systems and computer program products are also discussed.

Claims

1. A method for monitoring a computer network for information, comprising:

obtaining sensitive information about a subscriber;

repeatedly providing repeated search requests to a search engine to search the network for the sensitive information about the subscriber;

intermittently providing intermittent search requests to the search engine to search the network for obscuring information in-between the repeated search requests to disguise the sensitive information, the obscuring information comprising information different from the sensitive information about the subscriber that is a subject of the repeated search requests;

identifying search results containing the sensitive information from results of the repeated and intermittent search requests; and

reporting the search results that were indentified to the subscriber.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

populating a database with the sensitive information about the subscriber and randomly-generated obscuring information;

wherein repeatedly providing the repeated search requests to search for the sensitive information and intermittently providing the intermittent search requests to search for the obscuring information comprises;

providing a combined search request sequence to the search engine, the combined search request sequence comprising a plurality of search requests for the sensitive information about the subscriber and a plurality of search requests for the obscuring information interleaved between the search requests for the sensitive information.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

obtaining the sensitive information for the repeated search requests from the subscriber;

randomly-generating the obscuring information;

expanding the sensitive information with the obscuring information to generate target information; and

repeatedly searching the network for the target information,

wherein repeatedly searching for the target information comprises repeatedly searching for the sensitive information and intermittently searching for the obscuring information responsive to the combined search request sequence.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein expanding the sensitive information with the obscuring information comprises augmenting the sensitive information about the subscriber with information about other subscribers and/or randomly-generated information about non-existent subscribers and/or public information about non-subscribers.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein obtaining the sensitive information from the subscriber further comprises obtaining preference information from the subscriber as to a degree of privacy for the sensitive information.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein populating the database comprises populating the database with sensitive information about a plurality of subscribers and randomly-generated obscuring information to produce expanded information for each of the plurality of subscribers, and wherein the combined search request sequence comprises a plurality of search requests for expanded information for a first subscriber and a plurality of search requests for expanded information for a second subscriber interleaved between the search requests for the expanded information for the first subscriber.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein repeatedly providing the repeated search requests further comprises providing search requests for additional information about the subscriber if the sensitive information from the subscriber is found.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein repeatedly providing the repeated search requests includes a delay between related search requests, and wherein intermittently providing the intermittent search requests is performed during the delay.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the search results containing the sensitive information further comprises:

excluding search results specified by the subscriber and/or a system administrator; and

comparing remaining search results with the sensitive information obtained from the subscriber to identify the search results containing the sensitive information.

10. A system for monitoring a computer network for information, comprising:

a database stored on a tangible computer readable storage medium populated with sensitive information about a subscriber obtained from the subscriber; and

a search engine stored on a tangible computer readable storage medium configured to perform repeated searches of the network for the sensitive information about the subscriber and further configured to perform intermittent searches of the network for randomly-generated obscuring information during the repeated searches to disguise the sensitive information, the obscuring information comprising information different from the sensitive information about the subscriber that is a subject of the repeated searches,

wherein the search engine is further configured to identify search results containing the sensitive information from results of the repeated and intermittent searches based on the sensitive information in the database and is configured to report the search results that were identified to the subscriber.

11. The system of claim 10, further comprising:

a search target generator configured to generate target information by expanding the sensitive information with the obscuring information, wherein the search engine is configured to repeatedly search the network for the target information responsive to a combined search request sequence comprising a plurality of search requests for the sensitive information about the subscriber and a plurality of search requests for the obscuring information interleaved between the search requests for the sensitive information.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the database is populated with the sensitive information, the obscuring information, and the target information, and wherein the search engine is further configured to identify search results containing sensitive information from results of the repeated and intermittent searches based on the sensitive information in the database and report the search results that were identified to the subscriber.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the search engine is configured to include a delay between search requests for related sensitive information, and wherein the search engine is further configured to intermittently search for the obscuring information during the delay.

14. An article of manufacture for monitoring a computer network for information, comprising a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therein, the computer readable program code comprising:

computer readable program code configured to obtain sensitive information about a subscriber;

computer readable program code configured to repeatedly provide repeated search requests to a search engine to search the network for sensitive information about the subscriber;

computer readable program code configured to intermittently provide intermittent search requests to the search engine to search the network for obscuring information between the repeated search requests to disguise the sensitive information, the obscuring information comprising information different from the sensitive information about the subscriber that is a subject of the repeated search requests;

computer readable program code configured to identify search results containing the sensitive information from results of the repeated and intermittent search requests based on the obtained sensitive information; and

computer readable program code configured to report the search results that were identified to the subscriber.

15. The article of manufacture of claim 14, further comprising:

computer readable program code configured to obtain the sensitive information for the repeated search requests from the subscriber;

computer readable program code configured to randomly-generate the obscuring information; and

computer readable program code configured to expand the sensitive information with the obscuring information to generate target information;

wherein the computer readable program code configured to repeatedly provide the repeated search requests to search the network for the sensitive information and the computer readable program code configured to intermittently provide the intermittent search requests to search the network for the obscuring information comprises computer readable program code configured to provide a combined search request sequence to the search engine, the combined search request sequence comprising a plurality of search requests for the sensitive information about the subscriber and a plurality of search requests for the obscuring information interleaved between the search requests for the sensitive information.

16. The article of manufacture of claim 15, wherein computer readable program code configured to expand the sensitive information with the obscuring information is further configured to augment the sensitive information about the subscriber with information about other subscribers and/or randomly-generated information about non-existent subscribers and/or public information about non-subscribers.

17. The article of manufacture of claim 14, wherein the computer readable program code configured to repeatedly provide the repeated search requests to search for the sensitive information is further configured to provide search requests to search for additional information about the subscriber if the sensitive information from the subscriber is found.

18. The article of manufacture of claim 14, wherein the computer readable program code configured to repeatedly provide the repeated search requests to search the network for the sensitive information is further configured to wait between related search requests, and wherein the computer readable program code configured to intermittently provide the intermittent search requests to search the network for the obscuring information is further configured to intermittently provide the intermittent search requests during the wait.