Systems and methods of tracking content-exposure events

• US 9,641,555 B1
• Filed: 04/10/2015
• Issued: 05/02/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 04/10/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Quest Software, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Dell Software, Inc. (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Brisebois, Michel Albert, Johnstone, Curtis T.
• Primary Examiner(s): POWERS, WILLIAM S
• Application Number:
  US14/683,465
• Time in Patent Office: 753 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/60 Protecting data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6245 Protecting personal data, e.g. for financial or medical purposes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0227 Filtering policies mail message filtering H04L51/212
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1408 by monitoring network traffic monitoring network traffic per se H04L43/00

Abstract

In one embodiment, a method includes identifying a user-initiated precursor of an anticipated exposure event. The method also includes, in response to the identifying, automatically determining particular content that would be exposed if the exposure event were to occur. In addition, the method includes automatically determining one or more users to which the particular content would be exposed if the exposure event were to occur. Further, the method includes, before the exposure event occurs, publishing a result of the automatically determining to a user associated with the user-initiated precursor. Also, the method includes, in response to a detected occurrence of the exposure event, monitoring a plurality of communications platforms for follow-on exposure events in relation to the particular content which chain from the exposure event.

Claims

1. A method comprising, by a computer system:

identifying a user-initiated precursor of an anticipated exposure event;

in response to the identifying, automatically determining particular content that would be exposed if the anticipated exposure event were to occur;

automatically determining one or more users to which the particular content would be exposed if the anticipated exposure event were to occur;

before the anticipated exposure event occurs, publishing a result of the automatically determining one or more users to a user associated with the user-initiated precursor; and

in response to a detected occurrence of the anticipated exposure event, monitoring a plurality of communications platforms for follow-on exposure events in relation to the particular content which chain from the detected occurrence of the anticipated exposure event.

2. The method of claim 1, comprising:

in response to a detected follow-on exposure event in relation to the particular content, automatically determining an expanded user exposure resulting from the follow-on exposure event; and

reporting information related to the expanded user exposure to the user.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the follow-on exposure event is initiated by a user of the one or more users.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the automatically determining one or more users comprises:

identifying one or more user indications of recipients of the particular content;

aggregating users covered by the one or more user indications;

quantitatively evaluating an anticipated breadth of the anticipated exposure event based, at least in part, on the aggregating; and

wherein the publishing comprises providing a result of the quantitatively evaluating to the user.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the one or more user indications comprise at least one of the following:

a carbon-copy indication, a blind-carbon-copy indication, a distribution-list indication, and a user-group indication.

6. The method of claim 1, comprising:

in response to the detected occurrence of the anticipated exposure event, generating one or more content fingerprints in relation to the particular content; and

storing the one or more content fingerprints in a repository of content fingerprints in relation to the user.

7. The method of claim 6, comprising:

comparing a particular content fingerprint to the content fingerprints of the repository; and

identifying at least one content fingerprint of the repository as a subsequent reuse of the particular content fingerprint based, at least in part, on a result of the comparing.

8. The method of claim 6, comprising:

comparing a particular content fingerprint to the content fingerprints of the repository;

identifying a content fingerprint of the repository as an earliest use of the particular content fingerprint based, at least in part, on a result of the comparing; and

identifying a user associated with the earliest use.

9. The method of claim 6, comprising:

comparing at least one content fingerprint of the one or more content fingerprints to the content fingerprints of the repository;

identifying a subsequent reuse of the at least one content fingerprint in which content metadata has been altered to modify an author field; and

reporting the subsequent reuse to the user.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifying comprises detecting the user-initiated precursor.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifying comprises notification of the user-initiated precursor from a client information handling system.

12. An information handling system comprising:

a processor, wherein the processor is operable to implement a method comprising;

identifying a user-initiated precursor of an anticipated exposure event;

in response to the identifying, automatically determining particular content that would be exposed if the anticipated exposure event were to occur;

automatically determining one or more users to which the particular content would be exposed if the anticipated exposure event were to occur;

before the anticipated exposure event occurs, publishing a result of the automatically determining one or more users to a user associated with the user-initiated precursor; and

in response to a detected occurrence of the anticipated exposure event, monitoring a plurality of communications platforms for follow-on exposure events in relation to the particular content which chain from the detected occurrence of the anticipated exposure event.

13. The information handling system of claim 12, the method comprising:

in response to a detected follow-on exposure event in relation to the particular content, automatically determining an expanded user exposure resulting from the follow-on exposure event; and

reporting information related to the expanded user exposure to the user.

14. The information handling system of claim 13, wherein the follow-on exposure event is initiated by a user of the one or more users.

15. The information handling system of claim 12, wherein the automatically determining one or more users comprises:

identifying one or more user indications of recipients of the particular content;

aggregating users covered by the one or more user indications;

quantitatively evaluating an anticipated breadth of the anticipated exposure event based, at least in part, on the aggregating; and

wherein the publishing comprises providing a result of the quantitatively evaluating to the user.

16. The information handling system of claim 15, wherein the one or more user indications comprise at least one of the following:

a carbon-copy indication, a blind-carbon-copy indication, a distribution-list indication, and a user-group indication.

17. The information handling system of claim 12, the method comprising:

in response to the detected occurrence of the anticipated exposure event, generating one or more content fingerprints in relation to the particular content; and

storing the one or more content fingerprints in a repository of content fingerprints in relation to the user.

18. The information handling system of claim 17, the method comprising:

comparing a particular content fingerprint to the content fingerprints of the repository; and

identifying at least one content fingerprint of the repository as a subsequent reuse of the particular content fingerprint based, at least in part, on a result of the comparing.

19. The information handling system of claim 17, the method comprising:

comparing a particular content fingerprint to the content fingerprints of the repository;

identifying a content fingerprint of the repository as an earliest use of the particular content fingerprint based, at least in part, on a result of the comparing; and

identifying a user associated with the earliest use.

20. A computer-program product comprising a non-transitory computer-usable medium having computer-readable program code embodied therein, the computer-readable program code adapted to be executed to implement a method comprising:

identifying a user-initiated precursor of an anticipated exposure event;

in response to the identifying, automatically determining particular content that would be exposed if the anticipated exposure event were to occur;

automatically determining one or more users to which the particular content would be exposed if the anticipated exposure event were to occur;

before the anticipated exposure event occurs, publishing a result of the automatically determining one or more users to a user associated with the user-initiated precursor; and

in response to a detected occurrence of the anticipated exposure event, monitoring a plurality of communications platforms for follow-on exposure events in relation to the particular content which chain from the detected occurrence of the anticipated exposure event.