Patent ID: 8862670

Claim:
A computer implemented method of analyzing messages, the method comprising: receiving a first user input, the first user input specifying a pool of messages to be analyzed, each message having metadata associated therewith, the metadata for each message identifying at least one sender and at least one recipient of that message; receiving a second user input, the second user input identifying a sender of at least one of the messages in the pool of messages as a source and identifying a recipient of at least one of the messages in the pool of messages as a target; in response to the first and second user input, directing an analysis module to identify one or more communication chains from the source to the target based on the pool of messages, wherein at least one of the communication chains is an indirect chain that includes at least one sender or recipient identified as an intermediary between the source and the target and wherein the analysis module identifies the communication chains by successively detecting communication chains with an increasing number of intermediaries up to a maximum number of intermediaries; receiving, from the analysis module, a report indicating the communication chains that were identified; and displaying the report.