System and Method for Securing Documents Prior to Transmission

• US 20150033283A1
• Filed: 08/08/2013
• Published: 01/29/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/25/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Workshare Technology Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Workshare Technology Incorporated
• Inventors: Mulder, Matthew
• Granted Patent: US 9,948,676 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/063 Content adaptation, e.g. replacement of unsuitable content
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/212 using filtering or selective blocking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0245 Filtering by information in the payload
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/145 the attack involving the propagation of malware through the network, e.g. viruses, trojans or worms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/20 for managing network security; network security policies in general filtering policies H04L63/0227

Abstract

A system and method for securing documents attached to emails is disclosed. The system and method apply security rules to an email as it is being composed to ensure that the security policies have been expressed prior to the email being sent. The security program hooks in to the message object model so that as the message is modified, the security rules are applied to each modification.

Claims

1. A method for securing electronic messages comprising:

Detecting a change in the state of the electronic message while the message is being composed;

In response to the detection, applying at least one security policy rule to the electronic message while the message remains in the condition of being composed.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

determining if the change of state corresponds to the addition of a recipient, and if so, applying at least one security policy rule associated with a characteristic of the recipient to the message

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

determining if the change of state corresponds to the addition of a file attachment, and if so, applying at least one security policy rule associated with a characteristic of the file.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

determining if the change of state corresponds to the addition of a file attachment containing a predetermined one or more words, and if so, applying at least one security policy rule associated with the predetermined one or more words.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising:

determining the presence of the one or more words by inspecting encoded characters.

6. The method of claim 4 further comprising:

determining the presence of the one or more words by using pattern recognition of a portion of an image comprising the file attachment.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

inspecting the file attachment for the presence of a fingerprint.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising determining if the change of state corresponds to the addition of a predetermined one or more words to the body of the message, and if so, applying at least one security policy rule associated with the predetermined one or more words.

9. The method of claim 1 where the characteristic of the recipient is the domain of the recipient'"'"'s email address.

10. The method of claim 1 where the characteristic of the recipient is the identity of the recipient.

11. The method of claim 1 where the characteristic of the document is the document file type.

12. The method of claim 1 where the characteristic of the document is an indicia of sensitivity of the document, and further comprising the step of obtaining from data storage an indicia of sensitivity of the document by using a reference to the document.

13. The method of claim 1 where the step of applying the security policy rule comprises:

Determining a first indicia of sensitivity for the document;

Determining a second indicia of security privilege of the user creating the message;

Using the first and second indicia to determine whether the document may be transmitted in the message, and in dependence on such determination, either modifying a data structure associated with the message so as to remove the attachment or making the program logic block the sending of the message.

14. The method of claims 1-13 where the detecting step is comprised of:

Hooking into an object model associated with the message so as to have at least one object method used to determine the change in the state of the message as it is being composed.

15. The method of claim 14 where the at least one object methods are a first and second method that correspond to the addition of a recipient and the addition of a document attachment, where the first and second object methods express security policy rules corresponding to recipients and document attachments respectively.

16. A computer system adapted to perform any of the claims of 1-13.

17. A computer system adapted to perform claim 14.

18. A computer system adapted to perform claim 15.