Permissions-Aware Search Redaction for Sensitive Information
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing search systems fail to effectively prevent unauthorized access and display of sensitive information within search results and linked documents, leading to potential data breaches and security risks.
Innovation Solution
A permissions-aware search and knowledge management system that automatically detects sensitive information and adjusts access control lists, performs content redactions, and disables links to documents when unauthorized access is detected, using deep learning models to customize search results based on user permissions and organizational context.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a search system allows broad access to indexed documents for comprehensive search functionality, then search result completeness and accessibility are improved, but the risk of unauthorized access to sensitive information increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary classification of documents as containing sensitive information before they are made searchable. Access control lists are pre-configured with permission data, and the system proactively evaluates search results against these permissions before displaying them to users, preventing unauthorized access before it can occur.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary permission evaluation mechanism that sits between the search index and the user interface. This intermediary layer evaluates each search result against the user's permission credentials and the document's access control list, acting as a mediator that allows legitimate access while blocking unauthorized access to sensitive information.
2Reliability
If the system implements automated permission checking and content redaction for all search results, then data security is improved, but system processing time and computational resources increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies permission checking and content redaction selectively rather than uniformly to all search results. It identifies and applies security measures only to documents flagged as containing sensitive information, leaving ordinary documents to be displayed without additional processing overhead, thus maintaining security where needed while minimizing performance impact.
Solution Approach 2:
Documents are pre-classified and tagged with sensitivity metadata during indexing, and access control lists are pre-evaluated and cached. This preliminary preparation allows the search system to quickly determine whether permission checking is needed for each result without performing full security evaluations in real-time, significantly reducing processing delays.
3Reliability
If the system dynamically adjusts access control lists and performs content redactions in real-time, then prevention of data breaches is improved, but system complexity and computational overhead increase
Solution Approach 1:
The security functionality is segmented into distinct modular components: a permission evaluation module that checks credentials against access control lists, a content classification module that identifies sensitive information, and a redaction module that applies security measures. This segmentation allows each component to be independently optimized, maintained, and scaled, reducing overall system complexity while maintaining comprehensive security.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods and apparatuses for preventing the unauthorized use and display of sensitive information contained within search results or within documents that are linked to by search results or electronic messages are described. A permissions-aware search and knowledge management system may continuously scan the content of documents and messages indexed by the system and detect that a document shared by link contains sensitive information. In response to detecting that the document has been accessed by at least a first number of different users or has the ability to be accessed by at least a second number of different users, the permissions-aware search and knowledge management system may adjust file permissions, adjust access control lists, selectively disable links to the document, and/or perform content redactions for the document such that some system users do not have the ability to view or access the sensitive information within the document.