Method and system for scanning a computer system for sensitive content

A computer program product, comprising:

• a non-transitory computer-readable medium including computer-readable program code comprising instructions adapted to be executed on a first computer comprising a scan manager module and a non-transitory computer-readable medium to implement a method for managing a scan of a computer system for sensitive data, comprising the steps of:
• receiving at the first computer a request from a user to scan a second computer and identify sensitive files stored on the second computer, wherein sensitive files have content that includes at least one category of sensitive information and wherein sensitive information includes data that the user intends to protect from unauthorized access by others;
• receiving at the first computer recipient information comprising information identifying intended recipients of a scan report including results of the scan;
• using the scan manager module to respond to the request to scan by:
• generating a user profile identifying the at least one category of sensitive information and the recipient information;
• making the user profile available to a category server for use in creating a scan profile defining scan criteria;
• deploying a scan agent to the second computer to conduct the scan of the files of the second computer, the scan conducted based on the scan profile, and identifying the sensitive files based on their content, wherein the scan agent is configured to cause the second computer to remove the scan agent in response to an uninstall request received from the category server and the category server is configured to provide, upon completion of the scan, repeated uninstall requests to the scan agent until the category server receives an indication of the removal of the scan agent;
• and
• when the scan is complete, making the scan report including results of the scan generated by the category server available to intended recipients based on the recipient information included in the user profile, wherein the scan report includes information about the sensitive files identified by the scan.

A system for managing a scan of a computer system for sensitive data, said system comprising:

• a first computer comprising a scan manager module and a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing data and instructions;
• wherein the scan manager module is configured to access the non-transitory computer-readable medium for the data and the instructions and, when executing the instructions, to perform computer-implemented steps on the first computer for managing a scan of files of a second computer, and
• wherein said first computer is adapted to:
• receive at the first computer a request from a user to scan the second computer and identify sensitive files stored on the second computer, wherein sensitive files have content that includes at least one category of sensitive information and wherein sensitive information includes data that the user intends to protect from unauthorized access by others;
• and
• receive at the first computer recipient information comprising information identifying intended recipients of a scan report including results of the scan;
• and
• wherein said scan manager module is adapted to, in response to the request to scan the second computer:
• generate a user profile identifying the at least one category of sensitive information and the recipient information;
• make the user profile available to a category server for use in creating a scan profile defining scan criteria;
• deploy a scan agent to the second computer to conduct the scan of the files of the second computer, the scan conducted based on the scan profile, and identifying the sensitive files based on their content, wherein the scan agent is configured to cause the second computer to remove the scan agent in response to an uninstall request received from the category server and the category server is configured to provide, upon completion of the scan, repeated uninstall requests to the scan agent until the category server receives an indication of the removal of the scan agent;
• and
• when the scan is complete, make the scan report including results of the scan generated by the category server available to intended recipients based on the recipient information included in the user profile, wherein the scan report includes information about the sensitive files identified by the scan.