Patent ID: 9729511
Date: 2017-08-08
CPC Classifications: H04L,H04N

Claim:
1. A method comprising: capturing network traffic, by a network security device protecting a private network, wherein the network traffic is directed to an intended recipient associated with the private network; extracting, by an Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) engine running on the network security device, a media file from the network traffic; determining, by the IPS engine, presence of a potentially malicious hidden data item embedded in the media file, wherein the potentially malicious hidden data item comprises encoded data within one or more of a digital watermark, steganography and a barcode; determining, by the IPS engine, whether the potentially malicious hidden data item violates a security policy of a plurality of security policies of the private network enforced by the network security device by decoding the encoded data and applying a content filter to a result of the decoding; and when said determining, by the IPS engine, whether the potentially malicious hidden data item violates a security policy is affirmative, then (i) blocking transmission of the media file to the intended recipient, (ii) causing the intended recipient to be alerted regarding the violated security policy and (iii) causing a network administrator of the private network to be alerted regarding the violated security policy.