Patent ID: 6279010
Filing Date: 2001-08-21
Classification: G06F,Y10S

Abstract:
A computer-implemented method of automatically extracting from a large ambient data file containing a mixture of textual data and binary data information that has a relatively high probability of corresponding to Internet-related activity of interest to an investigator, the method comprising:providing an ambient data file including ambient data from one or more of the following sources, alone or in combination: unallocated storage space, file slack space at the end of one or more computer files, a windows swap, and one or more temporary system files;reading a portion of the ambient data file into random access memory;searching the portion of the ambient data to determine the presence of a first character or character group within a pre-specified proximity to a second character or character group to locate Internet-related identifiers of interest to the investigator;if internet-related identifiers are located, copying the internet-related identifiers to an output file, thereby providing an output file for the investigator to review that excludes non-textual data, is greatly reduced in size from the original ambient data file; and that includes most or all of the internet-related information of interest to an investigator in the ambient data file.