Updating hierarchical whitelists

• US 7,962,560 B2
• Filed: 12/22/2009
• Issued: 06/14/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/29/2003
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.), SonicWALL US Holdings, Inc. (SonicWall Holdings Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: SonicWALL, Inc. (SonicWall Holdings Ltd.)
• Inventors: Wilson, Brian K., Eikenberry, Scott D., Koblas, David A., Nufire, Tim, Wieneke, Paul R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Bates; Kevin
• Assistant Examiner(s): NGUYEN, MINH CHAU
• Application Number:
  US12/645,375
• Publication Number:
  US 20100174793A1
• Time in Patent Office: 539 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/206
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/212 using filtering or selective blocking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/48 Message addressing, e.g. address format or anonymous messages, aliases

Abstract

A system and method are disclosed for maintaining a whitelist, including: obtaining message data based on an email message sent by a user; extracting recipient information from message data; updating the whitelist using the recipient information.

Claims

1. A system for updating a plurality of hierarchal whitelists, comprising:

a messaging software application stored in memory and executable by a processor to;

access an e-mail message to obtain message data associated with the e-mail message sent by a sender to a recipient in a network,

extract sender information and recipient information from the message data,

send the message data to a server; and

a server device to update a plurality of whitelists residing on the server to add the extracted recipient data, the whitelists associated with;

the sender, wherein the recipient is identified as being allowed to send e-mail messages to the sender, and

a group of users that share whitelist entries, wherein the recipient is identified as always being allowed to send e-mail messages to the group of users.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the message software application resides on a firewall that monitors and logs network activities associated with outbound e-mail activities.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the message software application extracts recipient information from the message data based on firewall log messages associated with outbound e-mail activities.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the server device automatically updates the plurality of whitelists.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the message software application resides on the server device.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the message software application resides on a mail client.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the message software application is executable to access an e-mail message by reading a database of sent messages.

8. A method for updating a plurality of hierarchical whitelists, the method comprising:

accessing an e-mail message to obtain message data associated with the e-mail message sent by a sender to a recipient in a network,

extracting sender information and recipient information from the message data,

updating a plurality of whitelists residing on a server to add the extracted recipient information, the whitelists associated with;

the sender, wherein the recipient is identified as being allowed to send e-mail messages to the sender, and

a group of users that share whitelist entries, wherein the recipient is identified as always being allowed to send e-mail messages to the group of users.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the sender is a trusted user.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the whitelists are further associated with a corporate group that maintains addresses that are applicable to any user or other group within the corporate group.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the whitelists are further associated with a global whitelist that allows certain addresses to be whitelisted.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein the plurality of whitelists are automatically updated.

13. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having embodied thereon a program, the program being executable by a processor to perform a method for updating a plurality of hierarchical whitelists, the method comprising:

accessing an e-mail message to obtain message data associated with the e-mail message sent by a sender to a recipient in a network,

extracting sender information and recipient information from the message data,

updating a plurality of whitelists to add the extracted recipient information, the whitelists associated with;

the sender, wherein the recipient is identified as being allowed to send e-mail messages to the sender, and

a group of users that share whitelist entries, wherein the recipient is identified as always being allowed to send e-mail messages to the group of users.