Patent ID: 8352472

Claim:
A method of classifying data, the method comprising: displaying with one or more computer processors a user interface that allows a user to input a user-defined classification rule, wherein criteria associated with the user-defined classification rule comprises at least a data owner; monitoring an index of data interactions that record modifications to data objects; accessing the data objects to obtain first metadata about the data objects that is not stored in the index of data interactions, wherein the first data object is stored separately from the index of data interactions; identifying the data objects that meet the criteria of the user-defined classification rule; creating second metadata that references the data objects which meet the criteria of the user-defined classification rule; storing in a metabase the first metadata in association with the second metadata, and in association with information about the data interactions; and in response to a user request for information about data interactions associated with the user-defined classification rule, accessing the metabase to determine data interactions that meet the user-defined classification rule without accessing the plurality of data objects in the file system.