Methods, systems, and computer program products for transmission control of sensitive application-layer data

A system for identifying sensitive application-layer data and controlling transmission of the data in a network, the system comprising software operating in connection with electronic hardware components including:

• an application monitor adapted to identify sensitive data at an application layer in a system resource;
• a sensitive data agent operatively associated with the application monitor adapted to detect a packetization of the sensitive data identified by the application monitor and to insert, as part of the packetization, a flag indicative of the presence of sensitive data in a packet having at least a portion of the identified sensitive data, wherein inserting the flag in the packet includes inserting the flag in a portion of the packet corresponding to one of a transport layer and a network layer;
• and
• a sensitive data network agent operatively associated with the sensitive data agent adapted to control transmission of the packet in a network by interpreting the flag during transmission of the packet;
• wherein at least one of the components are included in a network device configured for implementing the component.

A computer program product comprising computer-executable instructions embodied in a computer readable medium for performing steps comprising:

• identifying, in a system resource, sensitive data at an application layer;
• detecting a packetization of the identified sensitive data;
• in response to identifying the sensitive data and detecting the packetization, inserting, as part of the packetization, a flag indicative of the presence of sensitive data in a packet having at least a portion of the identified sensitive data, wherein the flag is inserted in a portion of the packet corresponding to one of a transport layer and a network layer;
• and
• controlling transmission of the packet in a network based on the flag.