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Email message hygiene stamp

  • US 7,774,413 B2
  • Filed: 08/30/2005
  • Issued: 08/10/2010
  • Est. Priority Date: 08/30/2005
  • Status: Expired due to Fees
First Claim
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1. A method in an email system for filtering an email message, wherein the email system comprises a computer and a plurality of installed filtering agents, each filtering agent having an identifier that identifies a type of the filtering agent and a version of the filtering agent, the method comprising:

  • receiving by the computer the email message, the email message having a plurality of message hygiene stamps, each of the plurality of message hygiene stamps having an identifier identifying a type of a previous filtering agent that previously filtered the email message, a version of the previous filtering agent, virus signatures scanned by the previous filtering agent, and a result of filtering by the previous filtering agent;

    determining by the computer whether the email message is received from a trusted source or received from an un-trusted source;

    responsive to determining that the email message is received from the trusted source,for each of the plurality of install filtering agents,determining among the plurality of message hygiene stamps in the received email message if an appropriate message hygiene stamp is present, wherein the appropriate message hygiene stamp is the message hygiene stamp has the same identifier as the installed filtering agent;

    in response to determining the appropriate message hygiene stamp is present in the received email message,checking the appropriate message hygiene stamp to determine if the appropriate message hygiene stamp indicates an equal version or a newer version than the installed filtering agent;

    when the appropriate message hygiene stamp indicates an equal version or a newer version than the installed filtering agent, not filtering the email message;

    when the appropriate message hygiene stamp indicates an older version than the installed filtering agent, filtering the email message by the installed filtering agent;

    modify the appropriate hygiene stamp to indicate a result of filtering, the version of the installed filtering agent, and result of the filtering;

    in response to determining the appropriate message hygiene stamp is not present,filtering the email message; and

    placing a new message hygiene stamp on the email message indicating that the email message was filtered with the identifier of the installed filter agent, the version of the installed filtering agent, type of scanning and result of the filtering,responsive to determining that the email message is received from the un-trusted source,removing from the email message all message hygiene stamps; and

    for each of the plurality of installed filtering agents,filtering the email message with the installed filtering agent; and

    placing a new message hygiene stamp on the email message, the new message hygiene having the identifier of the installed filtering agent, the version of the installed filtering agent, a type of scanning and a result of the filtering; and

    wherein the message hygiene stamps placed on the email message are transported with the email message to an email client and wherein the email client determines the filtering that has been applied to the email message by analyzing the message hygiene stamps.

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