Patent ID: 7152244

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of protecting against an unintentional giveaway of sensitive data by a computer user to an illegitimate or unintended entity, the method comprising: detecting that a client application capable of communicating the sensitive data across a network to other computer users is being used under conditions that have characteristics of an unintentional giveaway of sensitive data to an illegitimate or unintended entity; in response to detecting that the client application is being used under conditions that have characteristics of an unintentional giveaway of sensitive data to an illegitimate or unintended entity, monitoring data being entered into the client application by the computer user; accessing a set of pattern generating functions; generating a set of string matching patterns by applying the set of pattern generating functions to the sensitive data; detecting an entry, or partial entry of the sensitive data or a variation of the sensitive data into the client application by comparing the data being entered into the client application to the string matching patterns in the set of string matching patterns; in response to detecting an entry, or partial entry of the sensitive data or a variation of the sensitive data into the client application, performing one or more of the following actions: requesting that the computer user confirm a communication of the sensitive data; warning the computer user that communicating the sensitive data might result in an unintentional giveaway of sensitive data to an illegitimate or unintended entity; preventing the client application from communicating the sensitive data; or logging a communication of the sensitive data by the client application; downloading an updated set of pattern generating functions; and generating an updated set of string matching patterns by applying the updated set of pattern generating functions to the sensitive data.