Patent ID: 7315891
Filing Date: 2008-01-01
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. In a computer network, a method for maintaining an acceptable use policy comprising: receiving input from a user selecting a subject matter category for use in monitoring network communications; monitoring TCP/IP network communications; storing raw TCP/IP session data of said TCP/IP network communications on disk, even when the communication does not conform to a known protocol; testing the stored communications for the presence of at least one preselected criterion, wherein the preselected criterion is defined by a user, comprises two or more subject matter categories each comprising regular expressions, with a first portion of said regular expressions assigned weights with negative values and a second portion of said regular expressions assigned weights with positive values, wherein the raw TCP/IP session data including all TCP control and payload data is tested for the presence of the at least one preselected criterion and wherein said testing first tests the stored communications for the presence of the negative valued regular expressions; maintaining a sum of values associated with said regular expressions found within at least one subject matter category as each regular expression is found by said testing by adding the value of the found regular expression to the sum of values; deleting the communications if the presence of said at least one preselected criterion is not determined; and storing the communications and halting the testing and maintaining if the sum of values associated with said regular expressions within a category meets or exceeds a positive threshold value selected based on user input.