Selective security encryption of electronic communication for selected recipients
First Claim
1. A method for preparing an electronic communication on a data processing system addressed to one or more recipients, each with a corresponding electronic address, said method comprising the steps of:
- addressing said electronic communication to one or more recipients via respective electronic addresses; and
associating a specific security characteristic to a selected electronic address from among said respective electronic addresses, wherein said specific security characteristic distinguishes an encryption format for a copy of said electronic communication to be transmitted to said selected electronic address such that said encryption format is automatically applied to said copy of said communication when transmitted.
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Abstract
A method for distinguishing recipients of electronic communication on a data processing data processing system utilizing the recipient'"'"'s electronic addresses. Electronic communication is first addressed to at least two recipients with corresponding recipient addresses. The security of the communication is enhanced by enabling the sender to encrypt the communication of selected recipients from among a larger number of recipients being sent the communication simultaneously. The selected recipients e-mail address are tagged and when the sender selects the transmit (or send) option on the e-mail GUI, the communication for those tagged addresses are first encrypted (via an encryption engine) before being transmitted to the recipients. The recipient may also be sent an encryption key to decrypt the communication. Otherwise, the encryption key may be a private key associated with the particular recipients address and stored on the recipient'"'"'s system. The communication is therefore transmitted in encrypted form but decrypted once it arrives at the recipient'"'"'s system.
156 Citations
34 Claims
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1. A method for preparing an electronic communication on a data processing system addressed to one or more recipients, each with a corresponding electronic address, said method comprising the steps of:
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addressing said electronic communication to one or more recipients via respective electronic addresses; and
associating a specific security characteristic to a selected electronic address from among said respective electronic addresses, wherein said specific security characteristic distinguishes an encryption format for a copy of said electronic communication to be transmitted to said selected electronic address such that said encryption format is automatically applied to said copy of said communication when transmitted. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
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16. A computer program product comprising:
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a compute readable medium;
program instructions on said medium for enabling a user to prepare an electronic communication on a data processing system addressed to one or more recipients, each with a corresponding electronic address, said program instructions comprising instructions for;
addressing said electronic communication to one or more recipients via respective electronic addresses; and
associating a specific security characteristic to a selected electronic address from among said respective electronic addresses, wherein said specific security characteristic distinguishes an encryption format for a copy of said electronic communication to be transmitted to said selected electronic address such that said encryption format is automatically applied to said copy of said communication when transmitted.
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31. A data processing system comprising:
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a processor and memory; and
program means for enabling a user to prepare an electronic communication on a data processing system addressed to one or more recipients, each with a corresponding electronic address, said program means comprising;
means for addressing said electronic communication to one or more recipients via respective electronic addresses; and
means for associating a specific security characteristic to a selected electronic address from among said respective electronic addresses, wherein said specific security characteristic distinguishes an encryption format for a copy of said electronic communication to be transmitted to said selected electronic address such that said encryption format is automatically applied to said copy of said communication when transmitted. - View Dependent Claims (32, 33)
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34. A method for distinguishing an electronic communication on a data processing data processing system addressed to one or more recipients with a corresponding electronic address, said method comprising the steps of:
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addressing said electronic communication to one or more recipients to create a plurality of recipients'"'"' addresses; and
linking a specific characteristic to a selected electronic address associated with one of said plurality of recipients, wherein said specific characteristic distinguishes a content of a copy of said communication transmitted to said selected electronic address and is automatically transmitted within said copy of said communication, which exhibits said characteristic independent of other characteristics exhibited by other copies of said communication transmitted to other recipient addresses;
wherein further said characteristics includes an encoding option, and, responsive to a selection of said encoding option with said selected recipient address, said method further includes transmitting said copy of said communication in encoded format to said recipient address, wherein said communication is transmitted un-coded to all other recipients for which said encoding option is not selected.
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Specification