VoIP communication content control

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9462118-B2
Application number	US-44380006-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 30, 2006
Priority date	May 30, 2006
Publication date	Oct 4, 2016
Grant date	Oct 4, 2016

Abstract

A mediation server for controlling contents of incoming and outgoing communication information exchanged as part of a conversation is provided. The mediation server may be a centralized server between an internal (private) network and an external network, utilized for enforcing the internal network's policy and detecting a potential security compromise in the internal network. Predefined evaluation criteria are utilized to enforce internal policy or security policy within the internal network. When communication information is exchanged, the mediation server may monitor potential policy or security breaches in the communication information utilizing the predefined evaluation criteria and execute an appropriate action to prevent potential policy or security breaches.

First claim

The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive property or privilege is claimed are defined as follows:

1. A method for managing a voice over IP conversation between one or more clients on a communication channel, comprising:
obtaining communication information relating to an existing conversation on a communication channel, wherein the communication information relating to the existing conversation comprises one or more packets of voice communication information and one or more packets of contextual information;
identifying a set of evaluation criteria based on the one or more clients, the set of evaluation criteria specifying one or more rules used to determine whether the communication information includes undesirable content, wherein transmission of the undesirable content would constitute at least one of a policy breach and a security breach;
determining whether at least one of the one or more packets of contextual information and the one or more packets of voice communication information includes undesirable content as specified by the evaluation criteria, the undesirable content determined from detecting a keyword within the communication information,
based on a determination that at least one of the one or more packets of contextual information and at least one of the one or more packets of voice communication information includes undesirable content, altering the at least one of the one or more packets of contextual information and at least one of the one or more packets of voice communication information that includes the undesirable content; and
based on a determination that the one or more packets of contextual information and the one or more packets of voice communication information do not include undesirable content, transmitting the one or more packets of contextual information and the one or more packets of voice communication information to a recipient client of the one or more clients.

2. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein obtaining communication information relating to an existing conversation includes obtaining communication information from a sending computing device within an internal network and addressed to at least one recipient computing device outside of the internal network.

3. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein obtaining communication information relating to an existing conversation includes obtaining communication information from a sending computing device outside of an internal network and addressed to at least one recipient computing device within the internal network.

4. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the contextual information corresponds to data having a value and wherein determining whether at least one of the one or more packets of contextual information and the one or more packets of voice communication information includes undesirable content as specified by the evaluation criteria comprises determining whether the contextual information matches a predetermined value or set of values.

5. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein based on a determination that at least one of the one or more packets of contextual information and at least one of the one or more packets of voice communication information includes undesirable content further comprises preventing a transmission of the at least one or more packets of voice communication.

6. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein based on a determination that at least one of the one or more packets of contextual information and at least one of the one or more packets of voice communication information includes undesirable content, altering the at least one of the one or more packets of contextual information and at least one of the one or more packets of voice communication information that includes the undesirable content further comprises forwarding the one or more packets of voice communication to a recipient computing device.

7. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein altering the at least one of the one or more packets of contextual information and at least one of the one or more packets of voice communication information includes transmitting a message to a sending computing device, the message including additional information from the processing of the communication information according to the set of evaluation criteria.

8. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein transmitting the message to a sending computing device includes transmitting the message to the sending computing device via the communication channel.

9. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein altering the at least one of the one or more packets of contextual information and at least one of the one or more packets of voice communication information includes transmitting one or more additional packets of contextual information in the communication channel that indicates results from the processing of the communication information according to a set of evaluation criteria.

10. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the communication channel is a Voice over Internet Protocol communication channel.

11. A system for managing a voice over IP conversation between one or more clients on a communication channel comprising:
a first and a second computing device that exchange communication information via conversation established over an established communication channel, wherein the communication information relating to a conversation comprises one or more packets of voice communication information and one or more packets of contextual information related to the conversation;
a processing computing device that:
identifies a set of evaluation criteria based on the one or more clients, the set of evaluation criteria specifying one or more rules used to determine whether the communication information includes undesirable content, wherein transmission of undesirable content would constitute at least one of a policy breach and a security breach; and
monitors the one or more packets of voice communication information and the one or more packets of contextual information for a keyword indicating the undesirable content;
wherein based on a determination that at least one of the one or more packets of contextual information and at least one of the one or more packets of voice communication information includes undesirable content, the processing computing device alters the at least one of the one or more packets of contextual information and at least one of the one or more packets of voice communication information that includes the undesirable content; and
wherein based on a determination that the one or more packets of contextual information and the one or more packets of voice communication information do not include undesirable content, the processing computing device transmits the one or more packets of contextual information and the one or more packets of voice communication information to a recipient client of the one or more clients.

12. The system as recited in claim 11 , wherein the first computing device and the processing computing device communicate via an internal communication network and wherein the second computing device communicates via an external communication network.

13. The system as recited in claim 11 , wherein the first and second computing devices and the processing computing device communicate via an external communication network.

14. The system as recited in claim 11 , wherein based on a determination that at least one of the one or more packets of contextual information and at least one of the one or more packets of voice communication information includes undesirable content, the processing device prevents a transmission of t

Assignees

• Malueg Michael D
• Chou Philip A
• Forbes Scott C
• Moore Timothy M
• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Malueg Michael D
• Chou Philip A
• Forbes Scott C
• Moore Timothy M

Classifications

• H04L65/1026

  at the edge · CPC title

• H04L63/20

  for managing network security; network security policies in general (filtering policies H04L63/0227) · CPC title

• H04M3/2281 Primary

  Call monitoring, e.g. for law enforcement purposes; Call tracing; Detection or prevention of malicious calls · CPC title

• H04L65/605

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L63/30

  for supporting lawful interception, monitoring or retaining of communications or communication related information (circuit switched telephony call monitoring H04M3/2281) · CPC title