Secure electronic mail system with configurable cryptographic engine
First Claim
1. A secure e-mail system, comprising:
- a server system including;
a secure e-mail service configured to;
receive a request from a sender to subscribe to the e-mail service;
subscribe the sender to the e-mail service;
receive, at a time of composing of an original e-mail message by the sender, a permission request from a sender computing device associated with the sender, the permission request including a request for authorization to send the original e-mail message to a recipient using the secure e-mail service,authorize sending of the e-mail message by the sender via the secure e-mail service responsive to the permission request, based on the sender being subscribed to the secure e-mail service,receive the e-mail message in unencrypted form from the sender computing device via an HTTPS communications protocol,receive a request from a recipient computing device for the original e-mail message, andtransmit the original e-mail message to the recipient computing device using the secure e-mail service, in response to the request from the recipient computing device;
a centralized message repository for storing the e-mail message received from the sender computing device and for storing other e-mail messages associated with the original e-mail message, including a reply e-mail message addressed to the sender from the recipient;
a cryptographic engine that encrypts the e-mail message with a cryptographic method designated by an administrator of the secure e-mail service, prior to storage of the e-mail message at the centralized message repository, and decrypts the e-mail message at the server system prior to delivery to the recipient upon receiving a request for retrieval of the e-mail message from the recipient; and
an interface executable on a computing device that provides functionality for the administrator to add an executable cryptographic method to the cryptographic engine, and to designate a particular executable cryptographic method to be used to encrypt and/or decrypt e-mail messages that are received and sent using the secure e-mail service at the server system.
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0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An e-mail system is disclosed that overcomes many deficiencies of, but is backward compatible with, existing e-mail systems. Embodiments of the system may include various features, including but not limited to: (1) secure transfer of e-mail messages, without the need for users to replace existing e-mail clients or to change e-mail addresses; (2) tracking of all actions performed in connection with an e-mail transmission; (3) the ability for a recipient to view information about an e-mail message, optionally including information about how other addressees have responded to it, before deciding whether to retrieve the e-mail message; (4) the aggregation of entire e-mail conversations into a single threaded view; (5) the ability to include both private and public messages in a single e-mail communication; (6) sender control over downstream actions performed in connection with an e-mail message; (7) flexible control over cryptographic methods used to encrypt emails messages for storage.
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Citations
15 Claims
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1. A secure e-mail system, comprising:
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a server system including; a secure e-mail service configured to; receive a request from a sender to subscribe to the e-mail service; subscribe the sender to the e-mail service; receive, at a time of composing of an original e-mail message by the sender, a permission request from a sender computing device associated with the sender, the permission request including a request for authorization to send the original e-mail message to a recipient using the secure e-mail service, authorize sending of the e-mail message by the sender via the secure e-mail service responsive to the permission request, based on the sender being subscribed to the secure e-mail service, receive the e-mail message in unencrypted form from the sender computing device via an HTTPS communications protocol, receive a request from a recipient computing device for the original e-mail message, and transmit the original e-mail message to the recipient computing device using the secure e-mail service, in response to the request from the recipient computing device; a centralized message repository for storing the e-mail message received from the sender computing device and for storing other e-mail messages associated with the original e-mail message, including a reply e-mail message addressed to the sender from the recipient; a cryptographic engine that encrypts the e-mail message with a cryptographic method designated by an administrator of the secure e-mail service, prior to storage of the e-mail message at the centralized message repository, and decrypts the e-mail message at the server system prior to delivery to the recipient upon receiving a request for retrieval of the e-mail message from the recipient; and an interface executable on a computing device that provides functionality for the administrator to add an executable cryptographic method to the cryptographic engine, and to designate a particular executable cryptographic method to be used to encrypt and/or decrypt e-mail messages that are received and sent using the secure e-mail service at the server system. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A secure e-mail system for transferring e-mail between a server system and a plurality of client computing devices, comprising:
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a cryptographic engine that includes a plurality of different executable cryptographic methods for encrypting an e-mail message prior to storage, and decrypting the e-mail message prior to delivery to a recipient of the e-mail message, wherein at least some of the cryptographic methods provide different levels of encryption than others; a centralized message repository on the server system for storing e-mail messages received from the plurality of client computing devices; a plurality of secure e-mail services that are executable on the server system and use the cryptographic engine to encrypt and decrypt e-mail messages, wherein each of the secure e-mail services is configured to use a particular one of the executable cryptographic methods, and at least some of the e-mail services are configured to use different executable cryptographic methods than others, so that different ones of said e-mail services provide different levels of security than others, and wherein a particular e-mail service is configured to receive a permission request from a sender computing device for authorization to send the e-mail message using the particular e-mail service, and wherein the particular e-mail service is configured to authorize sending of the e-mail message via the particular e-mail service based on the sender being subscribed to the particular e-mail service; and an e-mail client component, executable on at least one of the client computing devices, that provides functionality for a sender of an e-mail message to select from among the plurality of e-mail services for sending the e-mail message to the recipient, and for an administrator to add a new executable cryptographic method to the cryptographic engine; wherein the e-mail client component is configured to communicate with each e-mail service using a secure HTTPS communications protocol to send and receive e-mail messages between the e-mail client component and the server system, said e-mail messages being encrypted at the server system according to a selected cryptographic method by the cryptographic engine and stored in encrypted form on the centralized message repository. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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Specification