E-mail Stamping with accredited entity name

• US 7,917,943 B1
• Filed: 12/01/2006
• Issued: 03/29/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/01/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Barracuda Networks Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Goodmail Systems Incorporated
• Inventors: Dreymann, Daniel, Gingras, Richard, Rietz, Justin, Claspell, Gail
• Primary Examiner(s): Revak; Christopher A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Almamun; Abdullah
• Application Number:
  US11/566,013
• Time in Patent Office: 1,579 Days
• Field of Search: 713/170, 713/176, 713/16, 713/161, 713/172, 726/2, 726/4, 726/5, 709/206
• US Class Current: 726/4
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management

Abstract

Effective aspects of stamping outbound e-mail are combined with a registration and entity identification system for e-mail senders. A mail sender participates by registering From: line and entity information with a trusted third-party repository known as a stamp authority. When the sender sends an e-mail message, the From: line is compared against the From: line information for the sender stored in the repository. If the result is a match, entity information is added and the e-mail is allowed to be sent. If there is not a match, then the e-mail is prevented from being stamped.

Claims

1. A method for validating a sender of an e-mail message, the method comprising:

receiving an e-mail from the sender, the e-mail including a header, the header having a first field, the contents of the first field indicating the sender'"'"'s identity;

determining, by an authority, that the sender is authorized to use the identity indicated by the contents of the first field;

inserting, by the authority, a second field in the header, the contents of the second field indicating that the sender is authorized to use the identity indicated by the contents of the first field;

determining an entity name associated with the sender;

inserting, by the authority, a third field in the header, the contents of the third field indicating the entity name associated with the sender; and

inserting a token in the header, the token including a digital signature associated with the authority.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

returning the e-mail to the sender.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending the e-mail to a recipient indicated in the header.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the contents of the second field are cryptographically encoded.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the first field is a “

From;

”

field.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the contents of the field include an e-mail address.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein the contents of the field include a display name.

8. A computer-implemented method for validating a sender of an e-mail message, the method comprising:

registering identification information about an e-mail sender with an authority;

registering entity information about the e-mail sender with the authority;

sending a header associated with an e-mail message from the e-mail sender to the authority, the header including origination information, the origination information indicating that the associated e-mail message is from the e-mail sender;

receiving from the authority a modified header, the modified header associated with the e-mail message and additionally including a field indicating the registered entity information for the sender and a token indicating that the origination information is accurate; and

sending the e-mail message and the associated modified header to a recipient.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the registered identification information about the e-mail sender includes an e-mail address associated with the sender.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the e-mail address includes a domain name and the entity information includes an entity name differing from the domain name.

11. The method of claim 8 wherein the identification information about the e-mail sender includes a display name associated with the sender.

12. The method of claim 8 wherein the origination information includes a From:

address field.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the From:

address field includes an e-mail address.

14. The method of claim 12 wherein the From:

address field includes a display name.

15. A computer program product for validating a sender of an e-mail message, the computer program product stored on a computer-readable non-transitory medium and including instructions configured to cause a processor to carry out the steps of:

registering identification information about an e-mail sender with an authority;

registering entity information about the e-mail sender with the authority;

sending a header associated with an e-mail message from the e-mail sender to the authority, the header including origination information, the origination information indicating that the associated e-mail message is from the e-mail sender;

receiving from the authority a modified header, the modified header associated with the e-mail message and additionally including a field indicating the registered entity information for the sender and a token indicating that the origination information is accurate; and

sending the e-mail message and the associated modified header to a recipient.

16. A system for validating a sender of an e-mail message, comprising:

a stamp authority, including;

a registration database for storing identification information and entity name information for an e-mail sender;

a stamp generator for receiving from the e-mail sender a header associated with an e-mail message, the header including origination information, the origination information indicating that the associated the e-mail message is from the e-mail sender; and

wherein the stamp generator is further adapted to determine that the identification information about the e-mail sender stored in the registration database matches the origination information in the header, and to create a modified header, the modified header associated with the e-mail message and additionally including the entity name information for the sender and a token indicating that the origination information is accurate.

17. The system of claim 16 wherein the stamp generator is further adapted to return the modified header to the e-mail sender.

18. The system of claim 16 wherein the identification information about the e-mail sender stored in the registration database includes an e-mail address.

19. The system of claim 16 wherein the identification information about the e-mail sender stored in the registration database includes a display name.