System for eliminating unauthorized electronic mail
7 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A system for eliminating unauthorized email sent to a user on a network employs an email-receiving server connected between the network and the user'"'"'s email client for receiving email addressed to the user and rejecting those in which the sender address does not match any of sender addresses maintained on an “authorized senders” list (ASL list). The ASL lists are maintained by an ASL manager in an ASL database operable with a spam processor module. A redirector module rejects the email if, upon sending a request for validation to the spam processor module, the sender'"'"'s address does not match any authorized sender address on the ASL list. Email rejected by the redirector module is redirected to a web-based messaging (WBM) module which sends a message to the sender to confirm that the sender is a legitimate sender of email to the intended recipient. If the sender logs on to confirm their status, the WBM module executes an interaction procedure which can only be performed by a human, in order to ensure that the confirmation procedure is not performed by a mechanical program. The ASL manager maintains the ASL lists based upon sender address data collected from various sources and analyses of various email usage factors, including sent email, received email, contact lists maintained by the user, user preference inputs, third party programs, etc.
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Citations
40 Claims
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1-20. -20. (canceled)
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21. A method for eliminating unauthorized email attempted to be sent from an email-sending server to an email-receiving server on a network comprising the steps of:
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(a) establishing a connection on the network between the email-receiving server and the email-sending server, wherein said email-receiving server and email-sending server utilize a common email-sending protocol to send email on the network;
(b) sending via the email-sending server a first message to the email-receiving server identifying the sender address of a sender and the recipient address of a recipient for an email attempted to be sent by the email-sending server to the email-receiving server;
(c) maintaining for each recipient whose email-receiving is handled by the email-receiving server those authorized sender addresses that are authorized to send email to said recipient;
(d) checking via the email-receiving server if the identified sender address for the email attempted to be sent is included among those authorized sender addresses for the identified recipient; and
(e) sending via the email-receiving server a second message to the email-sending server rejecting the sending of the email to the email-receiving server if the sender address identified in the query message is not recognized as being one of those authorized sender addresses for the recipient, whereby the email-sending server is prevented from sending the email to the email-receiving server under the common email-sending protocol. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
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31. A method for eliminating unauthorized email attempted to be sent from an email-sending server to an email-receiving server on a network comprising the steps of:
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(a) establishing a connection on the network between the email-receiving server and the email-sending server, wherein said email-receiving server and email-sending server utilize a common email-sending protocol to send email on the network;
(b) sending via the email-sending server a first message to the email-receiving server identifying the sender address of a sender and the recipient address of a recipient for an email attempted to be sent by the email-sending server to the email-receiving server;
(c) maintaining for each recipient whose email-receiving is handled by the email-receiving server those authorized sender addresses that are not authorized to send email to said recipient;
(d) checking via the email-receiving server if the identified sender address for the email attempted to be sent is included among those not-authorized sender addresses for the identified recipient; and
(e) sending via the email-receiving server a second message to the email-sending server rejecting the sending of the email to the email-receiving server if the sender address identified in the query message is recognized as being one of those not-authorized sender addresses for the recipient, whereby the email-sending server is prevented from sending the email to the email-receiving server under the common email-sending protocol. - View Dependent Claims (32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40)
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Specification