E-mail certification service

• US 8,032,751 B2
• Filed: 12/07/2009
• Issued: 10/04/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: James R Du Molin, Suzanne S Du Molin
• Original Assignee: First Information Systems, LLC
• Inventors: Du Molin, James R., Avritch, Peter S., Clay, Bruce M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Barron, Jr.; Gilberto
• Assistant Examiner(s): ZECHER, CORDELIA P K
• Application Number:
  US12/632,655
• Publication Number:
  US 20100088385A1
• Time in Patent Office: 666 Days
• Field of Search: 713/176
• US Class Current: 713/170
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/00 User-to-user messaging in packet-switching networks, transmitted according to store-and-forward or real-time protocols, e.g. e-mail
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/123 received data contents, e.g. message integrity

Abstract

A method is provided to handle an electronic mail message such that the receiver of the e-mail message can verify the integrity of the message. A request is provided from a sender'"'"'s side to a service. The request includes information regarding the e-mail message. The service processes at least a portion of the request to generate a result. For example, the service may encrypt the portion of the request, according to a public/private key encryption scheme, to generate a digital signature as the result. The service provides the result to the sender'"'"'s side. At the sender'"'"'s side, the result is incorporated into the e-mail message and the result-incorporated message is transmitted via an e-mail system. At the receiver'"'"'s side, the result-incorporated e-mail message is processed to assess the integrity of the received e-mail message.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of operating a service to generate a result for an electronic mail (“

e-mail”

) message, comprising;

by the service, receiving a request from a sender via a network, the request comprising meta-data information regarding the e-mail message, wherein the meta-data information includes at least an e-mail address of the sender and an e-mail address of a recipient of the e-mail message,

by the service, processing at least a portion of the request to determine the result using a service private key, the service private key kept secret by the service; and

by the service, providing the result back to the sender via the network, for incorporation of the result into the e-mail message prior to the e-mail message being transmitted to the recipient of the e-mail message, as a result-incorporated e-mail message, via an e-mail system, whereby the recipient may process the result-incorporated e-mail message using a service public key to assess the integrity of the e-mail message.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the request received from the sender by the service further includes a digest of a body of the e-mail message.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein:

the digest of the body of the e-mail message has been generated using an SHA algorithm.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the request received from the sender by the service does not include the body of the e-mail message or information from which the body of the e-mail message can be derived.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the service determines the result to further include an indication of a level of certification of the e-mail message.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the request received from the sender by the service further comprises sender verification information; and

the method further comprises, by the service, processing the sender verification information.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein:

a sender is associated with e-mail message; and

the method further comprises, by the service, determining how the sender may be later located.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein:

determining how the sender may be later located includes associating a degree of certainty with the determination.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein:

the result includes an indication of the degree of certainty.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein:

a sender of the e-mail message is associated with a particular e-mail address of a plurality of e-mail addresses; and

the method further comprises;

at the service, before providing the result back to the sender for incorporation of the result by the sender into the e-mail message, sending an inquiry e-mail message from the service to the particular e-mail address; and

at the service, observing behavior of the sender associated with the inquiry e-mail message.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein:

the behavior of the sender associated with the inquiry e-mail message and observed by the service includes the sender sending an e-mail message to the service, and received by the service, in reply to the inquiry e-mail message.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein:

the behavior of the sender associated with the inquiry e-mail message and observed by the service includes the sender following instructions set forth in the inquiry e-mail message.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein:

the instructions provided by the service include instruction for the sender to link to a particular universal resource locator.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

by the service, before providing the result for incorporation into the e-mail message, receiving a request for the sender to subscribe to the service;

by the service, sending an inquiry message to a sender associated with the sender'"'"'s side, by a transmission channel other than the electronic mail system; and

by the service, observing behavior associated with the inquiry message.

15. A method for a recipient of an electronic mail (“

e-mail”

) message to validate a sender of the e-mail message, comprising;

receiving the e-mail message sent from a sender of the e-mail message via an e-mail system;

processing a header field of the received e-mail message using a public key of a service to generate a first result, wherein the public key of the service is matched to a private key of the service, the service private key kept secret by the service;

processing a portion of the received e-mail message to generate a second result, the portion of the e-mail message including at least metadata information regarding the received e-mail message but not including the header field of message processed to generate the first result, wherein the meta-data information includes at least an e-mail address of the sender and an e-mail address of a recipient of the e-mail message; and

comparing the first result to the second result to assess the integrity of the received e-mail message.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein:

the portion of the e-mail message processed by the recipient to generate the second result includes a body of the received e-mail message.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein:

the second result, generated by the recipient, is a digest of a body of the received e-mail message.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein:

the step of processing the received result-incorporated e-mail message by the recipient to assess the integrity of the e-mail message includes;

deriving the portion of the request from which the result was determined;

processing the portion of the request and the received e-mail message to assess the integrity of the e-mail message.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein:

deriving the portion of the request from which the result was determined includes processing the result using the service public key to generate a decrypted result;

processing the portion of the request and the received e-mail message to assess the integrity of the e-mail message includes

by the recipient, generating a digest of the message body and processing the generated digest and the decrypted result to assess the integrity of the e-mail message.

20. The method of claim 15, wherein:

the step of processing the received result-incorporated e-mail message by the recipient to assess the integrity of the e-mail message includes processing the result to determine a level of certification of the e-mail message.

21. The method of claim 15, wherein:

processing the received result-incorporated e-mail message by the recipient to assess the integrity of the e-mail message is without interacting with a service that created the result, prior to the result having been incorporated into the e-mail message.

22. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

sending a request to obtain contact information about the sender from the service that created the result, prior to the result having been incorporated into the e-mail message; and

receiving the requested contact information about the sender.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein:

the requested contact information about the sender is in a format appropriate to an e-mail client program used by the recipient.

24. The method of claim 22, wherein:

the requested contact information includes at least one link to sender advertising.

25. A computing system configured to be usable by a recipient of an electronic mail (“

e-mail”

) message to validate a sender of the e-mail message, the computing system configured to;

receive the e-mail message sent from the sender of the e-mail message via an e-mail system;

process a header field of the received e-mail message using a public key of a service to generate a first result, wherein the public key of the service is matched to a private key of the service, the service private key kept secret by the service;

process a portion of the received e-mail message to generate a second result, the portion of the e-mail message including at least metadata information regarding the received e-mail message but not including the header field of message processed to generate the first result, wherein the meta-data information includes at least an e-mail address of the sender and an e-mail address of a recipient of the e-mail message; and

compare the first result to the second result to assess the integrity of the received e-mail message.