Patent ID: 8229926
Filing Date: 2012-07-24
Classification: G06F,Y10S

Abstract:
1. A computer-readable medium comprising: computer-readable code adapted to instruct a programmable device to search for publicly-available sensitive information of an individual on an internet, the publicly-available sensitive information comprising a plurality of items of personal information associated with the individual, the plurality of items comprising at least a first item of personal information associated with the individual, a second item of personal information associated with the individual, and a third item of personal information associated with the individual, wherein the search for the publicly-available sensitive information comprises a search of variants of the items of personal information, wherein the items of personal information include at least three items selected from a group consisting of a name, an email address, a telephone number, a street address, and a social security number; computer-readable code adapted to instruct the programmable device to obtain results of the search; computer-readable code adapted to instruct the programmable device to assign an individual score for each of the items from the results, the individual score for a particular item being based on a number of occurrences within the results which contain the particular item; computer-readable code adapted to instruct the programmable device to assign combinatorial scores for the items of personal information from the search results, a combinatorial score for a particular combination of items being based on a number of the results which contain the particular combination of items, wherein a first combinatorial score is assigned based on an individual first score for the first item of personal information and an individual second score for the second item of personal information, wherein the first combinatorial score is assigned a heightened weight when the items in a combination are in a designated proximity of each other in the result of the search; and computer-readable code adapted to instruct the programmable device to output a report stating at least one level of security risk that exists to the individual based on the publicly-available sensitive information of the individual that was obtained from the results of the search, the level of security risk corresponding to at least the individual scores and combinatorial scores assigned to the results of the search, wherein an increasing number of occurrences of items of personal information in the results increases the level of security risk, wherein the first combinatorial score based on the individual first score for the first item of personal information and the individual second score for the second item of personal information is indicative of a particular level of security risk, wherein a second combinatorial score based on a different combination of individual scores for the items of personal information is indicative of a different level of security risk, wherein the at least one level of security risk comprises at least one member from a group consisting of: a level of risk for identity theft, a level of risk for a privacy breach, and a level of risk for receiving spam.