Patent Document ID: 8108370
Application ID: 12982608

Base Claim:
1. A computer-implemented method comprising: storing, in memory, a plurality of classified data patterns for personal identifiers, the plurality of classified data patterns corresponding to variations of personal identifier formats, the personal identifiers including confidential information of a plurality of entities; identifying a text document to be searched; searching the text document for data expressed in a format that matches any of the plurality of classified data patterns corresponding to the variations of personal identifier formats; finding, in the text document, one or more personal identifier candidates matching any of the plurality of classified data patterns; and validating each of the personal identifier candidates using one or more personal identifier validators to provide accurate detection of the confidential information in the text document.

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Claim 5:
5. The method of claim 1 wherein searching the text document comprises: performing a search for the plurality of classified data patterns in parallel using a single finite state machine (FSM) and a set of bitmasks.