Email Auditing System Selective Encryption Lexicon Analysis

Resolve Bottlenecks,
Find Innovative Solutions
Generate Solutions

Solution Overview

Problem

Organizations face challenges in managing and protecting confidential information transmitted via email due to the lack of secure encryption practices, leading to potential legal and reputational risks, and existing encryption solutions reduce efficiency by requiring unnecessary encryption of non-confidential information.

Innovation Solution

An email auditing system that captures and analyzes email for specific confidential information using a lexicon, allowing for tailored encryption policies to minimize delays and protect sensitive information, while using encryption and decryption processes to ensure secure analysis.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If all outgoing email is encrypted to protect confidential information, then security of confidential information is improved, but communication efficiency deteriorates due to time and resource consumption

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvesecurity of confidential informationVSAvoidcommunication efficiency
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSProductivity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent applies partial action by encrypting only a portion of emails that contain confidential information rather than all outgoing emails. The system analyzes email content to identify confidential information and applies encryption selectively, thereby maintaining security for sensitive communications while avoiding the efficiency penalties of universal encryption.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #16Partial or excessive action

Solution Approach 2:

The system performs preliminary analysis of email content before transmission to identify confidential information. By scanning emails for confidential data patterns and determining encryption needs in advance, the system prepares only necessary emails for encryption, reducing overall processing time and resource consumption compared to encrypting all emails.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

2Reliability

If all outgoing email is encrypted, then security of confidential information is improved, but time-sensitive communications are delayed

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveprotection from disclosureVSAvoidemail transmission delay
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The system encrypts only the subset of emails containing confidential information rather than all outgoing emails. This partial approach ensures that time-sensitive non-confidential emails are transmitted immediately without encryption overhead, while still providing protection for emails that require security.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #16Partial or excessive action

Solution Approach 2:

The system performs rapid preliminary scanning of email content to identify confidential information before transmission. This advance identification allows the system to prepare encryption only for necessary emails, reducing the time delay for both encrypted and non-encrypted communications.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

3Stability of the object's composition

If encryption is applied to emails without confidential information, then security protocol consistency is improved, but resource consumption increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvesecurity protocol consistencyVSAvoidcomputational resources
Core Design Contradiction:
Stability of the object's compositionVSUse of energy by moving object

Solution Approach 1:

The system applies encryption only to emails containing confidential information rather than all emails. This selective approach maintains security protocols for sensitive communications while avoiding unnecessary computational resource consumption on non-confidential emails, achieving resource efficiency without compromising security consistency.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #16Partial or excessive action

Data Source

PatentUS7539725B2Auditor system
Publication Date: 2009.05.26 ZIXCORP SYST
  • US7539725B2 patent drawing
  • US7539725B2 patent drawing
  • US7539725B2 patent drawing

AI summary

An auditing system and method for analyzing email, including capturing email transferred over a network and transferring the email to a data analyzer. The email can be encrypted for safe transfer to the analysis location. Once the email is delivered to the analysis location, it is decrypted and the analysis process begins. The analysis of the email includes scanning the email for specific search terms found in a lexicon and then identifying trends based on scanning results.