Secure electronic mail system
First Claim
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.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An e-mail system is disclosed that overcomes many deficiencies of, but is backward compatible with, existing e-mail systems. Embodiments of the system may include various features, including but not limited to: (1) secure transfer of e-mail messages, without the need for users to replace existing e-mail clients or to change e-mail addresses; (2) tracking of all actions performed in connection with an e-mail transmission; (3) the ability for a recipient to view information about an e-mail message, optionally including information about how other addressees have responded to it, before deciding whether to retrieve the e-mail message; (4) the aggregation of entire e-mail conversations into a single threaded view; (5) the ability to include both private and public messages in a single e-mail communication; (6) sender control over downstream actions performed in connection with an e-mail message; (7) flexible control over cryptographic methods used to encrypt emails messages for storage.
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Citations
21 Claims
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1. A method for a secure messaging system, the method comprising:
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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. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3)
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4. A method for a secure messaging system, the method comprising:
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intercepting a message composed and sent by a sender via a messaging client running on a sender computing device with a messaging client plug-in running on a sender computing device, such that an ordinary transmission of the message to a recipient via a recipient computing device associated with a recipient address is blocked; sending the message in unencrypted form via a secure communications protocol from the sender computing device to a server system for storage thereon in encrypted form; sending an introductory message in unencrypted form via an SMTP protocol to the recipient computing device, said introductory message including a key for retrieving the message from the server system in unencrypted form via the secure communications protocol, the 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 key does not serve as an encryption or decryption key, the key being further usable with the recipient address to programmatically register the recipient with the secure messaging service upon access of the introductory message by the recipient, wherein the introductory message lacks at least some message content of the message. - View Dependent Claims (5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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Specification