MESSAGE CHALLENGE RESPONSE

• US 20130191480A1
• Filed: 03/06/2013
• Published: 07/25/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 07/16/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Quest Software, Inc.
• Original Assignee: SonicWALL, Inc. (SonicWall Holdings Ltd.)
• Inventors: Oliver, Jonathan J., Wilson, Brian K., Uyeda, Damon K., Eikenberry, Scott D., Koblas, David A., Nufire, Tim
• Granted Patent: US 8,732,256 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1441 Countermeasures against malicious traffic countermeasures against attacks on cryptographic mechanisms H04L9/002

Abstract

A system and method are disclosed for registering a email sender for the purpose of sending an email message to an email receiver including receiving a challenge message wherein the challenge message includes a machine answerable question; processing the challenge message to determine that it is a challenge message sent for the purpose of authorizing delivery of the email message; analyzing the question to determine a valid response to the challenge message; and sending the valid response that includes the answer wherein a nontrivial amount of resources are required to send the valid response.

Claims

1. A method of registering an electronic-mail (e-mail) sender for the purpose of sending e-mail messages to an e-mail recipient, the method comprising:

receiving a challenge answer sent from the e-mail sender to an independent third-party auditor, the challenge answer in response to a challenge message sent by the e-mail recipient;

executing instructions stored in memory, wherein execution of the instructions by a processor of the independent third-party auditor;

evaluates validity of the response, and

determines whether there is a pattern in challenge answers related to the e-mail sender that is indicative of spam; and

sending a report from the independent third-party auditor to the e-mail recipient regarding the validity of the response and whether there is a pattern in challenge answers related to the e-mail sender that is indicative of spam, wherein the e-mail recipient processes e-mail messages from the e-mail sender based on the report.