Systems and methods for monitoring messaging applications for compliance with a policy

• US 9,178,842 B2
• Filed: 11/04/2009
• Issued: 11/03/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/05/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Original Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Inventors: Pamidiparthi, Sandeep
• Primary Examiner(s): Murray, Daniel C
• Application Number:
  US12/612,359
• Publication Number:
  US 20100169480A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,190 Days
• Field of Search: 709/224, 715/239, 715/249
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/116 Details of conversion of file system types or formats
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/258 Data format conversion from or to a database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/151 Transformation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/063 Content adaptation, e.g. replacement of unsuitable content
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/214 using selective forwarding

Abstract

The present inventions relate systems and methods for monitoring and managing electronic messages in one or more computer networks. More particularly, the systems and methods of the present invention provide a substantially global or unified approach to messaging management within one or more computer networks that allows network administrators or other authorized users to define and identify electronic messages of interest within the network and store selected messages such that they can be retrieved and examined in connection with an audit or other inquiry.

Claims

1. A messaging system comprising:

a communication server comprising computer hardware and in communication with a plurality of client computing devices comprising computer hardware, the communication server configured to initiate and administer messaging sessions between two or more of the client computing devices;

a graphical user interface configured to provide input functionality allowing a user to specify criteria for identifying messages of interest, wherein the identification takes place subsequent to delivery of the messages of interest and prior to storage of those messages in a storage destination specified in a compliance policy;

one or more memory devices storing the compliance policy specifying at least the storage destination and the criteria entered via the graphical user interface; and

a computing device executing a compliance agent and in communication with the plurality of clients and the one or more memory devices, the compliance agent configured to;

access the compliance policy;

monitor the messaging sessions;

for a first monitored message including an audio data portion, convert the audio data portion to converted text;

subsequent to delivery of the first monitored message and prior to storage of the first monitored message in the storage destination specified in the compliance policy, based at least on the criteria specified in the compliance policy for identifying messages of interest, process the converted text to identify the first monitored message as a first identified message of a plurality of messages of interest within the messaging sessions, wherein the identified messages of interest have files associated therewith of at least a first type and a second type, where the files of the second type are generated with a different software application than the files of the first type;

direct storage of identified messages to the storage destination specified in the compliance policy; and

convert those of the identified files that are not in the common file format type specified in the compliance policy to the common file format type.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the communication server comprises a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) server.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the SIP server is a Communications Server.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the system further comprises a speech recognition module configured to convert the audio data portion into the converted text.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the compliance policy specifies a confidentiality designation for identified messages.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein identified messages are conveyed by a public switched telephone network (PSTN) or a private branch exchange (PBX) network and controlled by a data network.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the common file format type includes an American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) or text format.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the compliance agent includes a Session Initiation Protocol User Agent or Session Initiation Protocol User Agent Client.

9. The system of claim 1, further comprising a de-duplicating device de-duplicating identified messages in storage.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the compliance policy is created based, at least in part, on legal or regulatory requirements.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the compliance agent is further configured to reduce a number of different file format types.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the compliance agent is configured to convert identified messages from one of at least:

MS Word to WordPerfect;

WordPerfect to MS Word;

MS Word to ASCII; and

WordPerfect to text.

13. A method for specifying, identifying, and selectively storing electronic messages, comprising:

administering a messaging session between two or more clients with a communication server;

providing a graphical user interface including input functionality allowing a user to specify criteria for identifying messages of interest, wherein the identification takes place subsequent to delivery of the messages of interest and prior to storage of those messages in a storage destination specified in a compliance policy;

storing the compliance policy in one or more memory devices, the compliance policy specifying at least the storage destination and the criteria entered via the graphical user interface;

with at least one computing device comprising computer hardware,

accessing the compliance policy;

monitoring the messaging session;

for a first monitored message including an audio data portion, converting the audio data portion to converted text;

subsequent to delivery of the first monitored message and prior to storage of the first monitored message in the storage destination specified in the compliance policy, based at least on the criteria specified in the compliance policy for identifying messages of interest,

processing the converted text; and

based at least in part on said processing, identifying the first monitored message as a first identified message of a plurality of messages of interest within the messaging session, wherein the identified messages of interest have files associated therewith of at least a first type and a second type, where the files of the second type are generated with a different software application than the files of the first type;

storing the identified messages to the storage destination specified in the compliance policy; and

converting those of the identified files that are not in the common file format type specified in the compliance policy to the common file format type.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising conveying identified messages, at least in part, over a public switched telephone network (PSTN) or a private branch exchange (PBX) network and controlling identified messages, at least in part, with a data network.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the compliance agent includes a Session Initiation Protocol User Agent or Session Initiation Protocol User Agent Client.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the common file format type includes an American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) or text format.

17. The method of claim 13, further comprising de-duplicating identified messages in storage.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein the compliance agent is further configured to reduce a number of different file format types.

19. The method of claim 13, wherein the compliance agent is configured to convert identified messages from one of at least:

MS Word to WordPerfect;

WordPerfect to MS Word;

MS Word to ASCII; and

WordPerfect to text.

20. A non-transitory computer-usable medium having stored therein computer-usable instructions for a computing device comprising computer hardware, wherein said instructions when executed by the computing device cause the processor to:

administer a messaging session between two to or more clients a with communication server;

provide a graphical user interface configured to provide input functionality allowing a user to specify criteria for identifying messages of interest, wherein the identification takes place subsequent to delivery of the messages of interest and prior to storage of those messages in a storage destination specified in a compliance policy;

store the compliance policy in one or more memory devices, the compliance policy specifying at least the storage destination and the criteria entered via the graphical user interface;

with at least one computing device comprising computer hardware, access the compliance policy;

monitor the messaging session;

for a first monitored message including an audio data portion, convert the audio data portion to converted text;

subsequent to delivery of the first monitored message and prior to storage of the first monitored message in the storage destination specified in the compliance policy, based at least on the criteria specified in the compliance policy for identifying messages of interest, process the converted text to identify the first monitored message as a first identified message of a plurality of messages of interest within the messaging session, wherein the identified messages of interest have files associated therewith of at least a first type and a second type, where the files of the second type are generated with a different software application than the files of the first type;

store the identified messages to the storage destination specified in the compliance policy; and

convert those of the identified messages that are not in the common file format type specified in the compliance policy to the common file format type.