Methods and systems for suppressing undesireable email messages
First Claim
1. A system for inhibiting or suppressing delivery of undesirable email messages through vulnerable systems comprising:
- an emulator that emulates one or more vulnerable systems that can be used by spammers to relay, forward or otherwise send undesirable email messages to target systems; and
one or more modules associated with the emulator, the one or more module configured tointercept undesirable email messages that spammers attempt to relay, forward or otherwise send to target systems using one or more of the emulated one or more vulnerable systems,determine whether intercepted undesirable email messages are test messages sent by spammers,prevent at least some intercepted undesirable email messages from ever being relayed, forwarded or otherwise sent to target systems using one or more of the emulated one or more vulnerable systems, andrelay, forward or otherwise send to target systems at least some intercepted undesirable email messages that are determined to be test messages sent by spammers, in order to make it appear to spammers that undesirable email messages are successfully being relayed, forwarded or other sent to target systems.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system for suppressing delivery of undesirable messages through vulnerable systems. The system includes an emulator that emulates one or more of the vulnerable systems. A module associated with the emulator intercepts undesirable messages, which were originally intended to be sent through a vulnerable system. One embodiment includes plural emulators, which include one or more servers that are part of a network of servers. A controller communicates with one or more servers. In this embodiment, the controller includes a database capable of storing statistics pertaining to undesirable messages blocked by one or more of the servers. The statistics may include information pertaining to the sender(s) of the undesirable messages. Undesirable messages intercepted by the network of servers include email spam.
121 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A system for inhibiting or suppressing delivery of undesirable email messages through vulnerable systems comprising:
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an emulator that emulates one or more vulnerable systems that can be used by spammers to relay, forward or otherwise send undesirable email messages to target systems; and one or more modules associated with the emulator, the one or more module configured to intercept undesirable email messages that spammers attempt to relay, forward or otherwise send to target systems using one or more of the emulated one or more vulnerable systems, determine whether intercepted undesirable email messages are test messages sent by spammers, prevent at least some intercepted undesirable email messages from ever being relayed, forwarded or otherwise sent to target systems using one or more of the emulated one or more vulnerable systems, and relay, forward or otherwise send to target systems at least some intercepted undesirable email messages that are determined to be test messages sent by spammers, in order to make it appear to spammers that undesirable email messages are successfully being relayed, forwarded or other sent to target systems. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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6. A method for inhibiting or suppressing delivery of undesirable email messages through vulnerable systems comprising:
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emulating one or more vulnerable systems that can be used by spammers to relay, forward or otherwise send undesirable email messages to target systems; intercepting undesirable email messages that spammers attempt to relay, forward or otherwise send to target systems using one or more of the emulated one or more vulnerable systems; determining whether intercepted undesirable email messages are test messages sent by spammers; preventing at least some of the intercepted undesirable email messages from ever being relayed, forwarded or otherwise sent to target systems using one or more of the emulated one or more vulnerable systems; and relaying, forwarding or otherwise sending to target systems at least some intercepted undesirable email messages that are determined to be test messages sent by spammers, in order to make it appear to spammers that undesirable email messages are successfully being relayed, forwarded or other sent to target systems. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A system for inhibiting or suppressing delivery of undesirable email messages through vulnerable systems comprising:
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an emulator that emulates one or more vulnerable systems that can be used by spammers to relay, forward or otherwise send undesirable email messages to target systems; and one or more modules associated with the emulator, the one or more module configured to intercept undesirable email messages that spammers attempt to relay, forward or otherwise send to target systems using one or more of the emulated one or more vulnerable systems, and flag the intercepted undesirable email messages before the intercepted undesirable email messages are relayed, forwarded or otherwise sent to the target systems, to thereby enable the target systems to automatically recognize the flagged email messages as being undesirable, so that the target systems can automatically delete the flagged email messages, automatically put the flagged email messages in a deleted-items folder, or otherwise automatically handle the flagged email message in a predetermined manner. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A method for inhibiting or suppressing delivery of undesirable email messages through vulnerable systems comprising:
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emulating one or more vulnerable systems that can be used by spammers to relay, forward or otherwise send undesirable email messages to target systems; intercepting undesirable email messages that spammers attempt to relay, forward or otherwise send to target systems using one or more of the emulated one or more vulnerable systems; and flagging the intercepted undesirable email messages before relaying, forwarding or otherwise sending to the target systems the undesirable email messages, to thereby enable the target systems to automatically recognize the flagged email messages as being undesirable, so that the target systems can automatically delete the flagged email messages, automatically put the flagged email messages in a deleted-items folder, or otherwise automatically handle the flagged email message in a predetermined manner. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification