AUTHENTICATING ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A method of authenticating an electronic mail item, comprising:
- parsing a header of the electronic mail item to obtain an IP address of a sender of the electronic mail item from a transmission data mail header of the header and to obtain a purported sender domain name from a visible mail header of the header;
interrogating a business entity database with the purported sender domain name to obtain an associated IP address of the sender associated with the purported sender domain name;
comparing the IP address and the associated IP address of the sender to determine whether they match or not; and
generating an authenticity indicator in response to the comparison to indicate of likelihood that the electronic mail item is spoofed.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method includes generating an authenticity indicator for an electronic communication based on a comparison of domain name data and purported sender data associated with the electronic communication, the authenticity indicator indicating a likelihood that the electronic communication was sent from a purported sender of the electronic communication. The authenticity indicator is presented to the recipient of the electronic communication.
32 Citations
19 Claims
-
1. A method of authenticating an electronic mail item, comprising:
-
parsing a header of the electronic mail item to obtain an IP address of a sender of the electronic mail item from a transmission data mail header of the header and to obtain a purported sender domain name from a visible mail header of the header;
interrogating a business entity database with the purported sender domain name to obtain an associated IP address of the sender associated with the purported sender domain name;
comparing the IP address and the associated IP address of the sender to determine whether they match or not; and
generating an authenticity indicator in response to the comparison to indicate of likelihood that the electronic mail item is spoofed. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
-
-
6. A method of authenticating an electronic mail item, comprising:
-
parsing a header of the electronic mail item to obtain domain name data for a sender of the electronic mail item and for each server via which the electronic mail item has been communicated;
comparing the domain name data with reference domain name data, which includes domain names previously identified to be associated with spoofed electronic mail items; and
generating an authenticity indicator in response to the comparison. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8)
-
-
9. A machine-readable medium embodying a sequence of instructions that, when executed by a machine, cause the machine execute a method of authenticating electronic mail, the method including:
-
parsing a header of the electronic mail item to obtain an IP address of a sender of the electronic mail item from a transmission data mail header of the header and to obtain a purported domain name of the sender from a visible mail header of the header;
interrogating a business entity database with the purported domain name to obtain an associated IP address of the sender associated with the purported domain name;
comparing the IP address and the associated IP address of the sender to determine whether they match or not; and
generating an authenticity indicator in response to the comparison to indicate of likelihood that the electronic mail item is spoofed. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12)
-
-
13. A mail server for authenticating an electronic mail item communicated between the mail server and at least one client device, comprising:
-
a communication interface for communicating with the at least one client device;
a processor; and
memory which includes a set of instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to parse a header of the electronic mail item to obtain an IP address of a sender of the electronic mail item from a transmission data mail header of the header and to obtain a purported sender domain name from a visible mail header of the header;
interrogate a business entity database with the purported sender domain name to obtain an associated IP address of the sender associated with the purported domain name;
compare the IP address and the associated IP address of the sender to determine whether they match or not; and
generate an authenticity indicator in response to the comparison to indicate of likelihood that the electronic mail item is spoofed. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16)
-
-
17. A method of authenticating an electronic mail item, the method including:
-
parsing a header of the electronic mail to obtain an IP address of a sender of the electronic mail item and to obtain a purported domain name of the sender of the electronic mail;
interrogating a business entity database with the header IP address to obtain an associated domain name;
comparing the associated domain name and the purported domain name of the sender to determine whether they match or not; and
generating the authenticity indicator in response to the comparison to indicate of likelihood that the electronic mail item is spoofed. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19)
-
Specification