METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR SHARING TRUSTED CONTACT INFORMATION

• US 20110113249A1
• Filed: 11/11/2010
• Published: 05/12/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/12/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ran M. Bittmann, Roy Gelbard
• Original Assignee: Ran M. Bittmann, Roy Gelbard
• Inventors: Gelbard, Roy, Bittmann, Ran M.
• Granted Patent: US 8,751,808 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/170
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/212 using filtering or selective blocking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3236 using cryptographic hash functions

Abstract

A method and system for sharing trusted contact information between trusted, known and unknown parties, without revealing the contact information itself, thus protecting the party defined in the contact from possible unsolicited messages known as “Spam”. Addresses of trusted senders are encrypted using a one-way encryption and stored in a whitelist repository that can be shared by different users. When a message is received, its senders address is extracted, encrypted using the same encryption method, and compared if it is found in the whitelist repository.

Claims

1. A method for approving a received message as coming from a trusted sender, the method comprising the steps of:

(i) receiving a message to be approved and extracting from the message its sender'"'"'s address;

(ii) encrypting said sender'"'"'s address according to a predetermined one-way encryption method producing an encrypted sender'"'"'s address, wherein the one-way encryption method can produce an encrypted address from a non-encrypted address but the non-encrypted address cannot be determined based on the encrypted address; and

(iii) verifying if said encrypted sender'"'"'s address is present in a whitelist repository containing encrypted addresses of trusted sender addresses encrypted by said predetermined one-way encryption method and approving a received message as coming from a trusted sender only if said encrypted sender'"'"'s address is present in said whitelist repository;

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein said one-way encryption method is a hashing function.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein said received messages is an e-mail message, instant message, fax message, Short Message Service (SMS) message, telephone call, Voice over IP (VoIP) call or any combination thereof.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein trusted sender addresses and whitelist repositories are managed at a separate devices, computers or locations.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein said whitelist repository aggregates whitelists provided by a plurality of users, each whitelist containing encrypted addresses of trusted senders.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein said plurality of users share encrypted addresses of trusted senders via peer to peer networks.

7. The method according to claim 5, wherein said plurality of users are members of the same social network.

8. The method according to claim 5, wherein said plurality of users use the same web-based email program.

9. The method according to claim 5, wherein an encrypted sender address or a whitelist or both comprise one or more tags.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein said one or more tags represent the credibility of an encrypted sender address, wherein the unencrypted sender address is unknown.

11. The method according to claim 9, wherein said one or more tags represent the credibility of a known provider of a whitelist.

12. The method according to claim 9, wherein received messages are classified based on tags of encrypted sender address or whitelists or both.

13. A system for approving a received message as coming from a trusted sender, the system comprising:

(i) a message handler that (a) receives a message to be approved, (b) extracts from the message its sender'"'"'s address, (c) encrypts said sender'"'"'s address according to a predetermined one-way encryption method producing an encrypted sender'"'"'s address, wherein the one-way encryption method can produce an encrypted address from a non-encrypted address but the non-encrypted address cannot be determined based on the encrypted address, and (d) sends the encrypted sender'"'"'s address to a verification server;

(ii) a verification server that verifies if said encrypted sender'"'"'s address is present in a whitelist repository containing addresses of trusted sender addresses encrypted by said predetermined one-way encryption method, and approves a received message as coming from a trusted sender only if said encrypted sender'"'"'s address is present in said whitelist repository.

14. A system according to claim 13, further comprising a whitelist repository.

15. A computer-usable medium having computer readable instructions stored thereon for execution by a processor to perform a method for approving a received message as coming from a trusted sender, the method comprising the steps of:

(i) receiving a message to be approved and extracting from the message its sender'"'"'s address;

(ii) encrypting said sender'"'"'s address according to a predetermined one-way encryption method producing an encrypted sender'"'"'s address, wherein the one-way encryption method can produce an encrypted address from a non-encrypted address but the non-encrypted address cannot be determined based on the encrypted address; and

(iii) verifying if said encrypted sender'"'"'s address is present in a whitelist repository containing encrypted addresses of trusted sender addresses encrypted by said predetermined one-way encryption method and approving;

a received message as coming from a trusted sender only if said encrypted sender'"'"'s address is present in said whitelist repository.