Graphical spam detection and filtering

• US 20080208987A1
• Filed: 02/26/2007
• Published: 08/28/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 02/26/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Rowley, Peter A.
• Granted Patent: US 8,291,021 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/16 Combinations of two or more digital computers each having at least an arithmetic unit, a program unit and a register, e.g. for a simultaneous processing of several programs coordinating program control therefor G06F9/52; in regulating and control system G05B
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]

Abstract

Some embodiments of graphical spam detection and filtering have been presented. In one embodiment, an electronic mail addressed to an electronic mail account is screened. If a graphic image is embedded in a body of the electronic mail and a sender of the electronic mail is unidentified, then the electronic mail is classified as unsolicited bulk electronic mail.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

screening an electronic mail addressed to an electronic mail account; and

classifying the electronic mail as unsolicited bulk electronic mail if a graphic image is embedded in a body of the electronic mail and a sender of the electronic mail is unidentified.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein screening the electronic mail comprises:

determining if the sender of the electronic mail is in an electronic mail address list associated with the electronic mail account.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein screening the electronic mail comprises:

determining if the sender of the electronic mail is in a predetermined list in a lightweight directory access protocol (LDAP) repository.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein screening the electronic mail comprises:

parsing the electronic mail to search for any graphic image in a predetermined format embedded in the body of the electronic mail.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

placing the electronic mail in an incoming electronic mail storage if the electronic mail is not classified as unsolicited bulk electronic mail.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

placing the electronic mail in an unsolicited bulk electronic mail storage if the electronic mail is classified as unsolicited bulk electronic mail; and

reporting classification of the electronic mail to a user.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

deleting the electronic mail if the electronic mail is classified as unsolicited bulk electronic mail.

8. An apparatus comprising:

a network adapter to receive an electronic mail addressed to an electronic mail account; and

an electronic mail engine coupled to the network adapter, the electronic mail engine comprising

a graphical filter to screen the electronic mail and to classify the electronic mail as unsolicited bulk electronic mail if a graphic image is embedded in a body of the electronic mail and a sender of the electronic mail is not in a predetermined list.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, further comprising:

a lightweight directory access protocol (LDAP) repository coupled to the electronic mail engine to store the predetermined list.

10. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the electronic mail engine comprises:

an electronic mail address storage to store the predetermined list, wherein the predetermined list includes an electronic mail address list associated with the electronic mail account.

11. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the graphical filter comprises:

a parser to parse the body of the electronic mail to search for any graphic image in a predetermined format embedded in the body of the electronic mail.

12. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the electronic mail engine comprises:

an address checker to determine if the sender of the electronic mail is in the predetermined list.

13. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the electronic mail engine comprises:

a reporting module to report to a user of the electronic mail account that the electronic mail is classified as unsolicited bulk electronic mail.

14. The apparatus of claim 8, further comprising:

an incoming electronic mail storage to store the electronic mail if the electronic mail is not classified as unsolicited bulk electronic mail.

15. The apparatus of claim 8, further comprising:

an unsolicited bulk electronic mail storage to store the electronic mail if the electronic mail is classified as unsolicited bulk electronic mail, wherein the electronic mail engine comprises a reporting module to report classification of the electronic mail to a user.

16. The apparatus of claim 8, further comprising:

a electronic mail server comprising the electronic mail engine; and

a client machine coupled to the electronic mail server, the client machine comprising a graphical user interface (GUI) module to generate an electronic mail GUI to allow users to access the electronic mail server.

17. The apparatus of claim 8, further comprising:

an electronic mail server; and

a client machine coupled to the electronic mail server to receive the electronic mail from the electronic mail server, wherein the client machine comprises the electronic mail engine.

18. A machine-readable medium that provides instructions that, if executed by a processor, will cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

screening an electronic mail addressed to an electronic mail account; and

classifying the electronic mail as unsolicited bulk electronic mail if a graphic image is embedded in a body of the electronic mail and a sender of the electronic mail is unidentified.

19. The machine-readable medium of claim 18, wherein screening the electronic mail comprises:

determining if the sender of the electronic mail is in an electronic mail address list associated with the electronic mail account.

20. The machine-readable medium of claim 18, wherein screening the electronic mail comprises:

determining if the sender of the electronic mail is in a predetermined list in a lightweight directory access protocol (LDAP) repository.

21. The machine-readable medium of claim 18, wherein screening the electronic mail comprises:

parsing the electronic mail to search for any graphic object in a predetermined format embedded in the body of the electronic mail.

22. The machine-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the operations further comprise:

placing the electronic mail in an incoming electronic mail storage if the electronic mail is not classified as unsolicited bulk electronic mail.

23. The machine-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the operations further comprise:

placing the electronic mail in an unsolicited bulk electronic mail storage if the electronic mail is classified as unsolicited bulk electronic mail; and

reporting classification of the electronic mail to a user.

24. The machine-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the operations further comprise:

deleting the electronic mail if the electronic mail is classified as unsolicited bulk electronic mail.