Patent ID: 8745155

Claim:
A method for identifying a network storage area associated with a user, the method comprising: crawling, via a computing device processor, a network to scan a plurality of network devices residing on the network; identifying, via a computing device processor, as a result of the scanning, a path of the network storage area as being associated with the user based on the path including an indicator associated with the user; generating, via a computing device processor, and storing, in computing device memory, a directory that stores a plurality of paths and indicators in association with respective users; transmitting, via a computing device processor, the identified path and indicator associated with the user from a scanned network device, at which the path and the indicator were identified, to the directory; in response to copying data from the network storage area, generating, via a computing device processor, an evidence object and associating the evidence object with the data, wherein the evidence object reflects at least one of an identity of the network storage location or location of the network storage area; and storing, at the network storage device, the evidence object in conjunction with the data, wherein the association between the evidence object and data insures that the evidence object adheres to the data for subsequent communication of the data throughout the network.