Patent ID: 8074267

Claim:
A method for monitoring computer communications comprising: receiving at a first node via a network communication interface a packet sent from a second node to a third node; determining whether an encryption policy applies to the packet sent from the second node to the third node based at least in part on packet header information in the packet; determining whether the packet includes a type of content for which the encryption policy requires that the content be encrypted or if the encryption policy does not require that the content be encrypted; determining whether the packet satisfies an encryption policy by determining whether an encryption policy applies to packets sent from a class of sources of which the second node is a member to a class of destinations of which the third node is a member; determining if the packet is encrypted, wherein determining if the packet is encrypted comprises performing an entropy-based statistical analysis of the packet; and generating a report indicating whether the encrypted or not encrypted status of the packet satisfies the encryption policy.