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Secure electronic mail system

  • US 10,601,764 B2
  • Filed: 04/10/2019
  • Issued: 03/24/2020
  • Est. Priority Date: 07/01/2005
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A method for a secure messaging system, the method comprising:

  • implementing, at a server system, a secure messaging service;

    intercepting a message on a sender computing device when the message is composed and sent by a sender on the sender computing device;

    sending the intercepted message in unencrypted form over a secure channel to the server system;

    receiving the message in unencrypted form at the server system, the message being from the sender, the sender having an account with the secure messaging service, and being addressed to a recipient that does not have an account with the secure messaging service;

    storing the message in encrypted form on the server system;

    generating, or causing a generation of, an introductory message after receiving of the message at the server system;

    transmitting, or causing a transmission of, the introductory message to the recipient in unencrypted form via an SMTP protocol, said introductory message lacking at least some message content of the message, and including a link to a web client interface that provides functionality to authenticate the recipient and to securely retrieve the message from the server system and further including a message access key including a message identifier identifying the message and a service host identifier indicating to the recipient a network accessible address of the server system at which the message is stored, wherein the message access key does not serve as an encryption or decryption key;

    upon access of the introductory message by the recipient, programmatically receiving recipient data including the message access key and a recipient address from the recipient;

    registering the recipient with the secure messaging service by validating the message access key and the recipient address; and

    transmitting the message in unencrypted form to the recipient via a secure communications protocol, based on the recipient data.

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