Granted Patent B2

US 8,463,892 · App. 11/485,537 · Granted Jun 11, 2013

Abstract

Claims (34)

1. A method for mitigating false positive type errors while applying an information leak prevention policy to identify important information that it is desired to protect and to prevent said important information from leaking outwardly of an organization, the method comprising the computer implemented steps of:

defining at least one positive criterion for a positive set, wherein said positive criterion comprises at least one indicator that a corresponding item contains information the distribution of which may be a possible breach of said information leak prevention policy;

defining at least one negative criterion for a negative set, wherein said negative criterion comprises at least one indicator of benign traffic;

establishing an ambiguity set defined by an intersection between said positive set and said negative set, said intersection containing items showing indications for both said positive set and said negative set, such that information items in said intersection, being all of the information items that belong simultaneously to said positive set and to said negative set, enter said ambiguity set;

defining at least one ambiguity resolution criterion for resolving ambiguity of all members of said ambiguity set, thereby to positively place in or to remove said member from said positive set accordingly;

monitoring and analyzing electronic traffic, where each information item in said traffic is searched for matches with said positive set;

checking each item in said positive set for membership in said ambiguity set;

resolving ambiguities of items in said ambiguity set using one of said ambiguity resolution criterion for each member of the ambiguity set and removing items from the positive set accordingly, said resolving being carried out on the items in all said items in said ambiguity set, being said items which are simultaneously members of said positive set and said negative set; and

applying information leak prevention policy for all items remaining in said positive set following said removal of items using ones of said ambiguity resolution criteria, thereby identifying important information that it is desired to protect and to prevent said important information from leaking outwardly of said organization;

the method further comprising entering into said positive set social security numbers and entering into said negative set CUISP identifiers that are numbers valid for the set of social security numbers.

2. A method according to claim 1 wherein said criterion for said positive set is provided by checking for a membership in a pre-defined list.

3. A method according to claim 1 wherein said criterion for said positive set is provided from matching with a regular expression.

4. A method according to claim 1 wherein said criterion for said positive set is provided by measuring a similarity to at least one document.

5. A method according to claim 1 , wherein said resolving said ambiguity comprises finding searched for terms predetermined to relate to the positive set, said ambiguity being resolved as positive when the predetermined terms are in proximity to said matches to said positive set, and said ambiguity being resolved as negative otherwise, said proximity being defined by a predetermined threshold.

6. A method according to claim 1 , wherein said resolving said ambiguity comprises finding searched for terms predetermined to relate to the negative set, said ambiguity being determined as negative when the predetermined terms are in proximity to said matches to said positive set, said proximity being defined by a predetermined threshold.

7. A method according to claim 1 , wherein said resolving said ambiguity comprises applying an additional validation criterion.

8. A method according to claim 1 , wherein said information leak prevention policy comprises applying at least one of the following actions:

block the message;

quarantine the message;

encrypt the message;

archive the message;

notify an authorized person about the message, and

log the message.

9. A method according to claim 1 wherein where each item is validated using a validation filter, said validation filter being configured to assert with a predetermined level of certainty that a non-validated finding belongs to a negative set, said validation filter utilizing a condition for validation requiring a match with a regular expression.

10. A method according to claim 1 , further comprising

assessing the potential severity of a given possible breach of said information leak prevention policy, to identify certain threats as potentially severe;

for threats identified as potentially severe:

assigning a default positive label, and

performing at least one test to validate said potential high severity cases as negative.

11. Apparatus for mitigating false positive type errors while applying an information leak prevention policy to identify important information that it is desired to protect and to prevent said important information from leaking outwardly of an organization, the apparatus comprising:

a criterion definer for defining at least one positive criterion for a positive set of items, wherein said positive criterion comprises at least one indicator of said important information and a possible breach of said information leak prevention policy, and further for defining at least one negative criterion for a negative set, wherein said negative criterion comprises at least one indicator of benign traffic;

said criterion definer configured to enter into said said positive set social security numbers and to enter into said negative set CUISP identifiers that are numbers valid for the set of social security numbers;

a disambiguator unit for establishing an ambiguity set in association with an intersection between said positive set and said negative set, such that all of said information items containing indicators for both said positive set and said negative set lie in said intersection and enter said ambiguity set, and for defining at least one ambiguity resolution criterion for resolving said ambiguity;

said apparatus being configured to monitor and analyzing electronic traffic, where each information item in said traffic is searched for matches with said positive set; to check each item in said positive set for membership in said ambiguity set; and to resolve ambiguities using one of said ambiguity resolution criterion for each member of the ambiguity set, said ambiguity resolving thus being carried out on all items which are simultaneously in said positive set and said negative set, and removing items from the positive set accordingly, thereby to allow said information leak prevention policy to be applied for all items remaining in said positive set following said removal of items using ones of said ambiguity resolution criteria, thus mitigating false positive type errors while applying an information leak prevention policy to identify important information that it is desired to protect and to prevent said important information from leaking outwardly of said organization.

Assignments (27)