E-mail firewall
DCFirst Claim
1. A method for restricting transmission of e-mail messages between a first site and a plurality of second sites in accordance with a plurality of administrator selectable policies, said method comprising:
- utilizing a simple mail transfer protocol (SMTP) relay in a transmission path for the e-mail messages between said first site and selected ones of said second sites;
applying a plurality of policy managers, responsive to said SMTP relay, for enforcing administrator selectable policies, said policies comprising at least a first source/destination policy, at least a first content policy and at least a first virus policy, said policies characterized by a plurality of administrator selectable criteria, and a plurality of administrator selectable exceptions to said criteria, said policy managers operative for;
managing access by restricting transmission of at least a first subset of the e-mail messages between said first site and said second sites in accordance with said source/destination policy;
managing content by restricting transmission of at least a second subset of the e-mail messages between said first site and said second sites in accordance with said content policy; and
managing viruses by restricting transmission of at least a third subset of the e-mail messages between said first site and said second sites in accordance with said virus policy,wherein each of said e-mail messages includes at least one recipient address, and wherein at least one of the e-mail messages is transmitted to a respective recipient address in response to a predetermined policy result of a policy manager.
3 Assignments
Litigations
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Accused Products
Abstract
An e-mail firewall (105) applies policies to e-mail messages (204) between a first site and a plurality of second sites in accordance with a plurality of administrator selectable policies (216). The firewall comprises a simple mail transfer protocol (SMTP) relay (202) for causing the e-mail messages (204) to be transmitted between the first site and selected ones of the second sites. A plurality of policy managers (216) enforce-administrator selectable policies. The policies comprise at least a first source/destination policy (218), a first content policy (202) and a first virus policy (224). The policies are characterized by a plurality of administrator selectable criteria (310), and a plurality of administrator selectable exceptions (312) to the criteria.
51 Citations
8 Claims
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1. A method for restricting transmission of e-mail messages between a first site and a plurality of second sites in accordance with a plurality of administrator selectable policies, said method comprising:
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utilizing a simple mail transfer protocol (SMTP) relay in a transmission path for the e-mail messages between said first site and selected ones of said second sites; applying a plurality of policy managers, responsive to said SMTP relay, for enforcing administrator selectable policies, said policies comprising at least a first source/destination policy, at least a first content policy and at least a first virus policy, said policies characterized by a plurality of administrator selectable criteria, and a plurality of administrator selectable exceptions to said criteria, said policy managers operative for; managing access by restricting transmission of at least a first subset of the e-mail messages between said first site and said second sites in accordance with said source/destination policy; managing content by restricting transmission of at least a second subset of the e-mail messages between said first site and said second sites in accordance with said content policy; and managing viruses by restricting transmission of at least a third subset of the e-mail messages between said first site and said second sites in accordance with said virus policy, wherein each of said e-mail messages includes at least one recipient address, and wherein at least one of the e-mail messages is transmitted to a respective recipient address in response to a predetermined policy result of a policy manager. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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Specification