Patent ID: 9569528
Date: 2017-02-14
CPC Classifications: G06F,G06Q

Claim:
1. A computer-implemented method for detecting confidential information, the method including: reading, by at least one processor, stored data; identifying, by the at least one processor, strings within the stored data, where each string includes a sequence of consecutive bytes that all have values that are in a predetermined subset of possible values; applying, by the at least one processor, a first set of one or more rules to identify one or more format matches based on the strings, wherein each format match includes at least a portion of one of the strings that matches a predetermined format associated with a first type of confidential information; for each determined format match, testing, by the at least one processor, the respective format match using a second set of one or more rules associated with the first type of confidential information to determine whether the format match is an invalid format match in which the portion of one of the strings that matches the predetermined format includes one or more invalid values that is or are invalid for the first type of confidential information; determining, by the at least one processor, a first count of invalid format matches; determining, by the at least one processor, a second count of format matches that do not include invalid values that are invalid for the first type of confidential information, in which the format matches are identified by the first set of one or more rules, and whether the format matches include invalid values is determined by the second set of one or more rules; applying, by the at least one processor, a third set of one or more rules to each of the identified strings to determine whether there is a format match in which at least a portion of the string matches a predetermined format associated with a second type of confidential information, and producing a second set of format matches; for each string associated with a format match in the second set of format matches, applying, by the at least one processor, a fourth set of one or more rules associated with the second type of confidential information to the string to determine whether the format match is an invalid format match in which the portion of the string matching the predetermined format associated with the second type of confidential information does not include a valid value for the second type of confidential information, and producing a second set of invalid format matches; determining, by the at least one processor, a third count of the matches in the second set of invalid format matches for the second type of confidential information; determining, by the at least one processor, a fourth count of matches in the second set of format matches for the second type of confidential information that do not include invalid values that are invalid for the second type of confidential information as determined according to the fourth set of one or more rules; and flagging, by the at least one processor, the stored data as having a probability to contain confidential information based on, at least in part, a first score calculated as a function of the first count, the second count, the third count, and the fourth count.