Uniform policy for security and information protection

An email system for affecting a data loss prevention (DLP) policy, said email system comprising:

• an email server;
• a set of email clients, said email clients in communication with said email server;
• a DLP policy module, said DLP policy module capable of enforcing a set of policy rules upon emails authored by users of said email system, said DLP policy module capable of enforcing said set of policy rules upon said email throughout an entire lifecycle of said email;
• and
• wherein said DLP policy module further comprising a set of single policy definitions, said single policy definitions comprising a directive and an associate action, and further wherein said DLP policy module capable of testing said emails for sensitive data as defined in a directive and capable of taking the associated action;
• wherein further said DLP policy module is applied to a plurality of electronic data subsystems in addition to said email server;
• and
• further wherein said DLP policy module is capable of sending to end-users an indication of actions and contextual information regarding the policy being triggered by end-users interaction;
• and
• sending the user a Non Delivery Report (NDR) message, if a policy directive that identifies sensitive information may allow user override of the policy before sending the sensitive information;
• sending a business justification text submitted by the sender, if the sender overrides the policy.

One or more computer-readable storage devices comprising executable instructions by a processor, and said processor executing said instructions is capable of performing a method, the method comprising:

• disseminating said set of single policy definitions, said single policy definition comprising a directive and an associate action, said single policy definitions capable of applying to a file stored within at least one of a plurality of electronic data subsystems, wherein said plurality of electronic data subsystems comprise an organizational file system throughout an entire lifecycle of said file;
• processing said file stored within at least one of a plurality of electronic data subsystems, said file authored by a user;
• if one of the single policy directive is triggered at two or more times during the lifecycle of said file, applying an action associated with said single policy action;
• sending to end-users an indication of actions and contextual information regarding the policy being triggered;
• and
• sending the user a Non Delivery Report (NDR) message, if a policy directive that identifies sensitive information may allow user override of the policy before sending the sensitive information;
• sending a business justification text submitted by the sender, if the sender overrides the policy.