System and method for handling electronic messages

• US 20070118874A1
• Filed: 11/18/2005
• Published: 05/24/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 11/18/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: Adams, Neil, Robertson, Ian, MacFarlane, David
• Granted Patent: US 8,191,105 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/30 Compression, e.g. Merkle-Damgard construction
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/80 Wireless network architectures or network communication protocols for wireless network security H04W12/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/214 using selective forwarding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0236 Filtering by address, protocol, port number or service, e.g. IP-address or URL
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0245 Filtering by information in the payload
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3247 involving digital signatures

Abstract

A system and method for handling secure-format messages in a communication system. The communication system includes a message server that receives secure-format messages from senders and one or more message recipients that may receive messages forwarded from the message server. The message server operates in conjunction with a secure message handler to detect and prevent the delivery of invalid secure-format messages. When a secure-format message is determined to be invalid, the secure message handler may take one or more of the following actions: replace the body of the invalid message with a template message, send a message to the sender of the invalid message indicating the message was rejected, delete the invalid message from the recipient'"'"'s mailbox, or log the message on the message server and mark it for review. Additionally, the handling of invalid messages is configurable. In particular, the actions to take and the conditions under which those actions are to be taken may be specified by an administrator.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for handling a secure-format electronic message to be sent from a sender to a recipient mobile communication device through a host system, the method comprising the steps of

(a) defining a set of secure message policies accessible at the host system, the secure message policies comprising message characteristic criteria,

(b) receiving the secure-format message at the host system,

(c) comparing the secure-format message with the message characteristic criteria in the set of secure message policies to determine the validity of the secure-format message at the host system, and

(d) selectively forwarding the secure-format message from the host system to the mobile communication device based on the determined validity of the secure-format message.

2. The method of claim 1 in which secure-format message is an S/MIME format electronic mail message, in which the message characteristic criteria of the secure message policies comprise the characteristic of a valid digital signature, and in which the step of determining the validity of the secure-format message comprises the step of determining if the secure-format message has a valid digital signature.

3. The method of claim 1 in which the secure-format message is an encrypted electronic mail message, in which the message characteristic criteria of the secure message policies comprise the characteristic of a valid security certificate, and in which the step of determining the validity of the secure-format message comprises the step of determining if the key used to encrypt the secure-format message has a matching certificate that is valid.

4. The method of claim 1 in which the step of defining the set of secure message policies further comprises the step of defining a set of message delivery options and in which the method further comprises the step of carrying out message delivery in accordance with the defined set of message delivery options.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising the step of selectively forwarding a notification message to the sender, based on the message delivery options and on the comparison of the received message with the message characteristic criteria of the secure message policies.

6. The method of claim 1 in which the step of defining the set of secure message policies further comprises the step of defining a set of notification templates and in which the method further comprises the step of selectively delivering a notification message to the mobile communication device, the notification message incorporating one or more of the defined set of notification templates and the selective delivery being based on the the comparison of the received message with the message characteristic criteria of the secure message policies.

7. The method of claim 6, in which the step of selectively delivering a notification message to the mobile communication device further comprises the step of digitally signing the notification message to permit message authentication at the mobile communication device.

8. A computer program product for handling electronic messages, the computer program product comprising a computer-useable medium have in computer-readable program product code embodied in said medium, said program code being executable by one or more processors for implementing the method of any one of claims 1 to 7.

9. A computer program product for handling electronic messages, the computer program product comprising a computer-useable medium have in computer-readable program product code embodied in said medium, said program code being executable at a host system for receiving electronic messages and for selectively forwarding electronic messages to a mobile communications device, said program code comprising;

code operable to define an administrator-configurable set of secure message policies accessible at the host system, the secure message policies comprising message characteristic criteria,

code operable at the host system for comparing a received secure-format message with the message characteristic criteria in the set of secure message policies to determine the validity of the received secure-format message, and

code operable to selectively initiate the forwarding of the received secure-format message to the mobile communications device based on the determined validity of the secure-format message.

10. The computer program product of claim 9, in which the host system comprises redirection program code for redirecting the received secure-format messages to the mobile communications device, the code operable for comparing a received secure-format message with the message characteristic criteria and the code operable to selectively initiate forwarding of the received secure-format message both being integral with the redirection program code.

11. The computer program code of claim 10 in which the code operable to define an administrator-configurable set of secure message policies, further comprises program code for defining an administrator-configurable set of message delivery options, and in which the code operable to selectively initiate forwarding of the received secure-format message further comprises code operable to selectively forward notification messages, based on the defined set of message delivery options.

12. The computer program code of claim 11 in which the host system further comprises a recipient mailbox into which the received secure-format message is initially copied on receipt at the host system and further comprising program code operable to selectively delete the secure-format message from the recipient mailbox based on the the determined validity of the secure-format message and the defined set of message delivery options.

13. The computer program code of claim 10 in which the code operable to define an administrator-configurable set of secure message policies, further comprises program code for defining an administrator-configurable set of message delivery options, and in which the code operable to selectively initiate forwarding of the received secure-format message further comprises code operable to selectively forward a notification message to the mobile communications device and to digitally sign the notification message to permit authentication of the notification message at the mobile communications device.