Patent ID: 7133916

Claim:
A system for identifying users of Internet Protocol addresses within an organization's communications network by matching user identification information from an organization's directory information with non-encrypted user identification information and current Internet Protocol addresses extracted by a discovery apparatus, comprising: a database storing the organization's directory information, the organization's directory information including user identification information but not requiring a list of devices; a discovery apparatus for extracting non-encrypted user identification information and associated Internet Protocol addresses, having at least one connection to a switch in the communications network for passively monitoring traffic thru the switch; and a server, connected to the discovery apparatus and having access to the database via the communications network, the server capable of matching the extracted non-encrypted user identification information and the user identification information from the organization's directory information as keys to link the extracted Internet Protocol addresses to contacts in the organization's directory information, automatically determining which contacts in the organization's directory information are currently using each of the extracted Internet Protocol addresses.