Document Policy Enforcement via Content-Based Scanning
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current document policy enforcement systems are inadequate in ensuring secure data transmission and storage, as they rely on user education and compliance, and do not adapt well to dynamic business environments, leading to potential information leaks due to varying employee competence and lack of up-to-date policies.
Innovation Solution
A content-based automatic policy enforcement system that creates customizable policy definitions for different document lifecycle stages, including printing, editing, and archiving, which are readily updatable, and enforces these policies through a policy daemon that scans and applies policies dynamically, ensuring compliance by design.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If user education and compliance approaches are used for policy enforcement, then implementation simplicity is maintained, but security reliability deteriorates due to varying employee competence and potential information leaks
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the mechanical system of manual user education and compliance monitoring with an automated electronic policy enforcement system. The policy daemon automatically scans documents, identifies sensitive information using classification signatures, and enforces policies through API integrations with document management systems, eliminating reliance on user competence and awareness.
Solution Approach 2:
The system enables self-service policy enforcement where the policy daemon autonomously monitors document creation, modification, and sharing activities without requiring user intervention. The system automatically applies classification signatures, evaluates policies, and enforces restrictions based on document sensitivity levels, making the security enforcement self-executing rather than user-dependent.
2Device complexity
If static policy definitions are used, then system complexity is reduced, but adaptability deteriorates in dynamic business environments where policies need frequent updates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic policy definitions that can be modified at runtime without requiring system reconfiguration. The policy store maintains policies in a structured format that allows administrative users to update classification signatures, policy rules, and enforcement parameters through standardized interfaces, enabling the system to adapt to changing business requirements while maintaining operational simplicity.
3Reliability
If comprehensive policy scanning and enforcement is implemented, then security coverage is improved, but processing time increases due to continuous monitoring of document lifecycle events
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by pre-defining classification signatures and policy rules before document processing occurs. When documents are created or imported, the system immediately matches them against pre-loaded classification signatures and applies appropriate policies without requiring complex real-time analysis, thus providing comprehensive security coverage with minimal processing delay.
Data Source
AI summary
A system and method is disclosed for document policy enforcement. The method discloses: scanning document parts for a set of policy-eliciting terms; assigning a policy to a document part based on a policy-eliciting term found within the document part; and enforcing the policy. The system discloses a computer programmed with executable instructions which operate a set of modules, wherein the modules comprise: a policy editor and a policy daemon, for effecting the method.