System and method for sending secure messages
First Claim
1. A method for sending a secure e-mail message to recipient using a sender system comprising a communication device, the communication device comprising a key store and being operative to execute a messaging application for composing and encoding an e-mail message, the method comprising:
- upon initiation of a message sending sequence of the messaging application to send a composed and addressed e-mail message securely to a recipient from the communication device, said message sending sequence being initiated by selection of a send option of the messaging application, and prior to sending said e-mail message,upon determining at the communication device that no valid security certificate associated with the recipient is stored in the key store,obtaining, by the communication device from a certificate service, a first security certificate associated with the recipient;
determining at the communication device whether said first security certificate thus obtained is valid using a validity status of said first security certificate obtained from a certificate status provider;
when said first security certificate thus obtained is determined not to be valid, the communication device repeating said obtaining to obtain a further security certificate associated with the recipient and repeating said determining to determine a validity status of said further security certificate until one of the further security certificates obtained by said repetition is determined to be valid; and
storing said valid further security certificate in the key store; and
encoding, by the communication device, the e-mail message using information contained in said valid further security certificate to provide a secure e-mail message; and
sending the secure e-mail message from the communication device to the recipient.
4 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Electronic messages are sent from a sending system to an identified recipient and are encoded using information contained in a certificate. A key store is accessed by a messaging application to determine if a certificate associated with the recipient is present. If no certificate is present in the key store the messaging application accesses one or more certificate services to obtain a certificate. Where validation of the retrieved certificate is required, the messaging application invokes a certificate validation process. One or more further certificates are obtained by the messaging application where the retrieved certificate is invalid.
28 Citations
30 Claims
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1. A method for sending a secure e-mail message to recipient using a sender system comprising a communication device, the communication device comprising a key store and being operative to execute a messaging application for composing and encoding an e-mail message, the method comprising:
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upon initiation of a message sending sequence of the messaging application to send a composed and addressed e-mail message securely to a recipient from the communication device, said message sending sequence being initiated by selection of a send option of the messaging application, and prior to sending said e-mail message, upon determining at the communication device that no valid security certificate associated with the recipient is stored in the key store, obtaining, by the communication device from a certificate service, a first security certificate associated with the recipient; determining at the communication device whether said first security certificate thus obtained is valid using a validity status of said first security certificate obtained from a certificate status provider; when said first security certificate thus obtained is determined not to be valid, the communication device repeating said obtaining to obtain a further security certificate associated with the recipient and repeating said determining to determine a validity status of said further security certificate until one of the further security certificates obtained by said repetition is determined to be valid; and storing said valid further security certificate in the key store; and encoding, by the communication device, the e-mail message using information contained in said valid further security certificate to provide a secure e-mail message; and sending the secure e-mail message from the communication device to the recipient. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 30)
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12. A communication device configured to generate a secure e-mail message addressed to a recipient, the communication device comprising:
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a key store configured to store at least one security certificate; a transceiver configured to communicate over a network with at least one certificate service; a processor configured to; upon initiation of a message sending sequence of a messaging application executing at the communication device to send a composed and addressed e-mail message securely to the recipient from the communication device, said message sending sequence being initiated by selection of a send option of the messaging application, and prior to sending said e-mail message, upon determining that no valid security certificate associated with the recipient is stored in the key store, obtain a security certificate associated with the recipient from the at least one certificate service via the transceiver; determine whether said first security certificate thus obtained is valid using a validity status of said first security certificate obtained from a certificate status provider; and when said first security certificate thus obtained is determined not to be valid, repeat said obtaining to obtain a further security certificate associated with the recipient and repeat said determining to determine a validity status of said different security certificate until one of the further security certificates obtained by said repetition is determined to be valid; and store said security certificate in the key store; and encode the e-mail message using information contained in the valid further security certificate thus obtained, to provide a secure e-mail message; and send the secure e-mail message to the recipient via the transceiver. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. A non-transitory computing device-readable medium storing messaging application program code which, when executed by a communication device, causes the communication device to:
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upon initiation of a message sending sequence of the messaging application to send a composed and addressed e-mail message securely to a recipient from the communication device, said message sending sequence being initiated by selection of a send option of the messaging application, and prior to sending said e-mail message, upon determining at the communication device that no valid security certificate associated with the recipient is stored in the key store; obtaining, by the communication device from a certificate service, a first security certificate associated with the recipient; determining at the communication device whether said first security certificate thus obtained is valid using a validity status of said first security certificate obtained from a certificate status provider; when said first security certificate thus obtained is determined not to be valid, the communication device repeating said obtaining to obtain a further security certificate associated with the recipient and repeating said determining to determine a validity status of said further security certificate until one of the further security certificates obtained by said repetition is determined to be valid; and storing said valid further security certificate in the key store; and encoding, by the communication device, the e-mail message using information contained in the valid further security certificate thus obtained, to provide a secure e-mail message; and sending the secure e-mail message from the communication device to the recipient. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
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27. A wireless handheld device comprising a memory for storing a key store and a memory for storing messaging application program code configured to cause the wireless handheld device to send an e-mail message to a recipient, the device comprising messaging application program code configured, when executed by the wireless handheld device, to cause the device to implement the method of:
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upon initiation of a message sending sequence to send a composed and addressed e-mail message securely to a recipient from the communication device, said message sending sequence being initiated by selection of a send option of the messaging application, and prior to sending said e-mail message, upon determining at the communication device that no valid security certificate associated with the recipient is stored in the key store; obtaining, by the communication device from a certificate service, a first security certificate associated with the recipient; determining at the communication device whether said first security certificate thus obtained is valid using a validity status of said first security certificate obtained from a certificate status provider; when said first security certificate thus obtained is determined not to be valid, repeating said obtaining to obtain a further security certificate associated with the recipient and repeating said determining to determine a validity status of said further security certificate until one of the further security certificates obtained by said repetition is determined to be valid; and storing said valid further security certificate in the key store; and encoding, by the communication device, the e-mail message using information contained in the valid further security certificate thus obtained, to provide a secure e-mail message; and sending the secure e-mail message from the communication device to the recipient. - View Dependent Claims (28, 29)
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Specification