APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR FILTERING AND SELECTIVELY INSPECTING E-MAIL

• US 20070233787A1
• Filed: 04/03/2006
• Published: 10/04/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 04/03/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Twitter Inc (X Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Pagan, William
• Granted Patent: US 7,752,274 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/212 using filtering or selective blocking

Abstract

An apparatus and method are disclosed for selectively filtering and inspecting incoming e-mail. The steps to selectively filter and inspect incoming e-mail include: assigning a risk value to each section of an incoming e-mail, presenting the incoming e-mail with sections blocked based on the risk value, and selectively disclosing blocked sections of the e-mail to a reviewer based on input from the reviewer. The method provides a way for a reviewer to filter risky e-mails based on multiple criteria, and safely review filtered e-mails to ensure legitimate e-mails are not incorrectly filtered.

Claims

1. An apparatus to selectively review portions of automatically filtered e-mail, the apparatus comprising:

a risk assessment module configured to assign a risk value to each section of an incoming e-mail message;

a risk management module configured to present the incoming e-mail message to a reviewer such that sections of the incoming e-mail are blocked based on a risk value scale;

a review interface configured to selectively disclose blocked sections of the incoming e-mail message to the reviewer in response to user input.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the user input comprises movement of a Graphical User Interface (GUI) slider having graduated levels between a first level that reveals no sections of the incoming e-mail message and a second level that reveals all sections of the incoming e-mail message, each graduated level associated with a risk value threshold.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the user input comprises activation of a plurality of GUI components, each GUI component associated with a section of the incoming e-mail message.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

an adaptation module configured to record the risk value assigned to each section of the incoming e-mail message, to record the user input, and to store a user profile comprising information derived from the recorded risk values and recorded user input; and

a user customization module configured to read the user profile and modify the blocked sections of the incoming e-mail based on the user profile.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the sections of the incoming e-mail are blocked by removing the blocked sections from the e-mail, and wherein selectively disclosing blocked sections of the e-mail comprises restoring the blocked sections to the e-mail.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising an administrator rules module configured to read administrator rules data, and wherein the risk management module is further configured to modify the blocked sections of the incoming e-mail based on the administrator rules data.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a user preferences module configured to read user preferences data, and wherein the risk management module is further configured to modify the blocked sections of the incoming e-mail based on the user preferences data.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising an administrator rules module configured to read administrator rules data, and wherein the risk assessment module is further configured to assign a risk value to each section of the incoming e-mail message based on the administrator rules data.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a user preferences module configured to read user preferences data, and wherein the risk assessment module is further configured to assign a risk value to each section of the incoming e-mail message based on the user preferences data.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the sections of the incoming e-mail comprise at least one of a subject line, a text body, an embedded image, embedded machine executable program code, and attachments.

11. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the risk assessment module is further configured to determine a set of constituent risk values for each section of the incoming e-mail corresponding to a set of risk categories, and to assign the risk value for each section by selecting the highest constituent risk value from the set of constituent risk values for each section.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the set of risk categories comprise offensive language, unsolicited sales language, the presence of an image, the presence of machine executable program code, and sender information.

13. A computer program product comprising a computer readable medium having computer usable program code programmed to filter and selectively review e-mail, the programming product having operations comprising:

assigning a risk value to each section of an incoming e-mail message;

blocking sections of the incoming e-mail based on a risk value scale;

presenting the incoming e-mail message having blocked sections to a reviewer; and

selectively disclosing blocked sections of the incoming e-mail message to the reviewer in response to user input.

14. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the user input comprises movement of a GUI slider defining a risk value threshold, the operations further comprising blocking sections of the incoming e-mail with a risk value greater than the risk value threshold, and disclosing sections of the incoming e-mail with a risk value less than the risk value threshold.

15. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the user input comprises a series of binary selections, each binary selection corresponding to one of the sections of the incoming e-mail, the operations further comprising disclosing sections of the incoming e-mail based on the state of each corresponding binary selection.

16. The computer program product of claim 13, further comprising reading administrator rules data, and wherein assigning a risk value comprises assigning a risk value based on the administrator rules data.

17. The computer program product of claim 13, further comprising reading user preferences data, and wherein assigning a risk value comprises assigning a risk value based on the user preferences data.

18. The computer program product of claim 13, further comprising generating a user profile based on the risk value assigned to each section of the incoming e-mail message and the user input, storing the user profile, and wherein blocking sections of the incoming e-mail further includes blocking sections of the incoming e-mail based at least in part on the user profile.

19. A method to selectively review automatically filtered e-mail, the method comprising:

installing an e-mail screening tool on a mail server; and

executing the e-mail screening tool configured to;

assign a risk value for each section of an incoming e-mail message;

present the incoming e-mail message to a reviewer such that one or more sections of the incoming e-mail are blocked based on a risk value scale; and

selectively disclose blocked sections of the incoming e-mail message to the reviewer in response to user input.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

receiving risk criteria from a system administrator, storing the risk criteria as administrator rules data; and

executing the e-mail screening tool to;

read the administrator rules data; and

to adjust the risk value for each section of the incoming e-mail based on the administrator rules data.