Email Obfuscation Preserving Delimiters for Workflow Analysis
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Solution Overview
Problem
Email messages in a print environment contain both useful workflow information and private data, making it challenging to analyze workflows effectively while preserving only relevant information.
Innovation Solution
A system that identifies and obfuscates specific content sections of email messages, excluding delimiters, using techniques like encryption, hashing, or alpha character replacement, to maintain email structure while concealing private information, thereby allowing analysis of end user processes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If all content of email messages is analyzed, then workflow information can be detected, but private information is exposed
Solution Approach 1:
The email content is segmented into different sections (headers, body, attachments) and further divided into obfuscated portions and preserved delimiter portions. This segmentation allows the system to protect private information while maintaining workflow-relevant structural elements.
Solution Approach 2:
The system extracts and preserves specific delimiter elements (such as semicolons in recipient lists or attachment sections) from the email content while obfuscating the surrounding private information. This extraction approach maintains the structural information needed for workflow analysis without exposing sensitive data.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If email content is obfuscated, then private information is protected, but analysis capability may be reduced
Solution Approach 1:
Delimiters serve as intermediary elements that bridge the obfuscated content and the analysis system. These preserved delimiters maintain the structural framework and semantic meaning needed for workflow detection, allowing analysis without direct access to private information.
Solution Approach 2:
Different parts of the email are treated differently: delimiters and structural elements are preserved in their original form, while content portions are obfuscated. This local differentiation ensures that each part serves its appropriate function - structural elements for analysis and content for protection.
3Shape
If delimiters are preserved during obfuscation, then email structure is maintained, but processing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary identification of delimiters and structural elements before applying obfuscation. By pre-marking these elements, the obfuscation process can proceed efficiently without requiring complex real-time analysis, reducing overall processing complexity while maintaining structure.
Data Source
AI summary
A method of obfuscating at least a portion of content of an email message may include identifying an email message that has been sent to one or more recipients and that pertains to one or more end user processes of a print environment, identifying a content section of the email message, and identifying one or more delimiters associated with the identified content section. The method involves determining whether the identified content section includes the delimiters, and if so, generating an obfuscated content section by obfuscating all content of the identified content section except the one or more identified delimiters. The method includes analyzing the obfuscated content section to ascertain information relevant to the one or more end user processes, and associating the ascertained information with one or more of the one or more end user processes.