Patent ID: 8140664

Claim:
A method to monitor and control a network, the network comprising a plurality of endpoints, each of the plurality of endpoints comprising a plurality of sensitive documents, a security policy, and a plurality of I/O devices, the method comprising: scanning and retrieving security information from a first endpoint of the plurality of endpoints, the security information comprising information about the plurality of sensitive documents, the security policy, and the plurality of I/O devices, the scanning conducted at predefined intervals; responding to a user input, displaying a data security summary view listing a number of security violations over multiple time periods; responding to a user input, graphically displaying a topology view which graphically displays a track of a sensitive document by highlighting an endpoint or server where the sensitive document originates, where the sensitive document visits, and where the sensitive document leaves the network; responding to a user input, displaying a security alarm view which raise an alert when a number of sensitive files leaving an endpoint exceeds a threshold, determining whether a document is a sensitive document by matching a content of the document with prestored content identified as sensitive; and aggregating tracing information of a sensitive document based on the security information from one or more of the plurality of endpoints.