IP Library Granted Patent US 11,961,029
Granted Patent B2
US 11,961,029 · App. 17/339,512 · Granted Apr 16, 2024

Systems and methods for electronically monitoring employees to determine potential risk

Inventors: Jim Jones, III (Chantilly, VA); Norman Allen Willox, Jr. (Annapolis, MD)
Assignee: ClearForce, Inc.
G06Q10/0635G06Q50/01
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 11,961,029
App. No.
17/339,512
Granted
Apr 16, 2024
Kind
B2
Abstract

Systems, methods, and computer machines for electronically monitoring an employee's behavior to identify risk are described. A method includes receiving first data from legal databases that includes information regarding legal activity relating to the employee, receiving second data from financial databases that includes financial activity relating to the employee, receiving third data relating to activities electronically conducted by the employee on a network, receiving fourth data from social networking databases that includes social networking activity conducted by the employee, aggregating the first, second, third, and fourth data into an employee profile relating to the employee, determining legally Protected Information regarding the employee from the employee profile, determining anomalies associated with the employee based on the employee profile and the legally Protected Information, and generating an alert relating to the anomalies. The alert does not reveal to the user any references to the legally Protected Information which was used to process the alert.

Claims (30)

1. A method for determining whether monitored activity on a network poses a risk to an organization, the method comprising:

electronically monitoring, by an employee monitoring/watch interface of a web application layer executed by at least one computing device, employee activities of a plurality of employees at substantially the same time;

receiving, by an employee processing interface of the web application layer executed by the at least one computing device, subject data relating to an employee to be investigated based on an event resulting from the monitoring of the employee activities;

receiving, by an external data layer executed by the at least one computing device, legal activity data from one or more legal databases, the legal activity data comprising information regarding legal activity relating to the employee;

receiving, by the external data layer executed by the at least one computing device, financial activity data from one or more financial databases, the financial activity data comprising financial activity relating to the employee;

receiving, by the employee monitoring/watch interface of the web application layer executed by the at least one computing device, electronic activity data relating to one or more activities electronically conducted by the employee on a network communicatively coupled to the at least one computing device, the electronic activity data generated in response to the electronic monitoring of an electronic device being operated by the employee on the network, the electronic activity data including data relating to operation of the electronic device by the employee;

receiving, by the external data layer executed by the at least one computing device, social networking data from one or more social networking databases, the social networking data comprising social networking activity conducted by the employee;

aggregating, by a microservices layer in communication with the web application layer and the external data layer and executed by the at least one computing device, the legal activity data, the financial activity data, the electronic activity data, and the social networking data into an employee profile relating to the employee;

determining, by the microservices layer executed by the at least one computing device, legally Protected Information regarding the employee from the employee profile;

configuring a client presentation software layer of the at least one computing device to prohibit provisioning of the legally Protected Information to a user via the client presentation software layer, wherein the client presentation software layer includes a private user interface that generates a plurality of security user interfaces for controlled access to information about the employee, each of the plurality of security user interfaces based on a class of a user desiring to access the information about the employee;

generating, by an analytics service of the microservices layer executed by the at least one computing device, a behavior model based on at least one of the social networking data, the legal activity data, the financial activity data, and the electronic activity data, wherein the behavior model generates data associated with typical behavior for the target employee;

determining, by the microservices layer executed by the at least one computing device, one or more anomalies associated with the employee based on the employee profile and the behavior model; and

generating, by the at least one computing device, an alert relating to the one or more anomalies, wherein the alert does not contain references to the legally Protected Information.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

transmitting, by the at least one computing device, a request to consent to monitoring to the employee; and

determining, by the at least one computing device, whether consent has been received in response to the request.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein electronically monitoring comprises at least one of:

conducting, by the at least one computing device, a scrape of the Internet for information regarding the employee; or

receiving, by the at least one computing device, information specific to the employee from one or more third party devices.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein electronically monitoring comprises providing, by the at least one computing device, information to a data source regarding the employee such that the data source automatically pushes employee-related information whenever it is available.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein electronically monitoring comprises providing, by the at least one computing device, information to a data source regarding the employee at a particular interval and receiving updated information regarding the employee.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the behavior model is generated based on at least one of a property owned by the employee, information regarding utilities used by the employee, information regarding travel completed by the employee, information regarding a club membership held by the employee, information regarding a group membership held by the employee, information regarding a subscription held by the employee, information regarding a previous employment of the employee, information regarding a publication made by the employee, information regarding a license held by the employee, or information regarding a registration held by the employee.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

determining, by the at least one computing device, that the employee poses a risk to an organization based on the one or more anomalies; and

generating, by the at least one computing device, a risk assessment report that indicates a determined risk, information about the determined risk, how the determined risk was determined, how the determined risk might potentially affect the organization, and how the determined risk may be mitigated.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein generating the risk assessment report further comprises:

generating, by the at least one computing device, one or more instructions for responding to the alert based on the determined risk; and

transmitting the one or more instructions to one or more designated computers or one or more employees designated for receiving the risk assessment report.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the electronic activity data includes keystrokes, clicks, electronic mail transmissions, websites visited, files that are downloaded locally onto a device, and/or the like.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein electronically monitoring includes monitoring at least one of browsing history, file transfer history, file editing history, communications data, keylogging, keystroke data, mouse click data, screen shot data, peripheral device access data, or video data.

Assignments (6)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Jan 26, 2026
From: MILLER, THOMAS JAMES
To: CLEARFORCE, INC.
Reel/Frame 073579/0180 →
SECURITY INTEREST Recorded Jul 3, 2025
From: CLEARFORCE, INC.
To: WESTERN ALLIANCE BANK
Reel/Frame 071605/0300 →
SECURITY INTEREST Recorded Dec 22, 2023
From: CLEARFORCE, INC.
To: WESTERN ALLIANCE BANK
Reel/Frame 065940/0816 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Jun 11, 2021
From: JONES, JAMES L., III; WILLOX, NORMAN ALLEN, JR.
To: DYNOLOGY CORPORATION
Reel/Frame 056520/0108 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Jun 11, 2021
From: DYNOLOGY CORPORATION
To: CLEARFORCE, LLC
Reel/Frame 056520/0132 →
CHANGE OF NAME Recorded Jun 11, 2021
From: CLEARFORCE LLC
To: CLEARFORCE, INC.
Reel/Frame 056557/0497 →
Continuity (3)
Continuation 15248372 · Aug 26, 2016
Provisional Application 62210744 · Aug 27, 2015
Related Publication 20210295221A1 · Sep 23, 2021
Cited By (1)
US 12,462,209