Reputation-based method and system for determining a likelihood that a message is undesired
First Claim
1. A method, comprising the steps of:
- receiving a plurality of tuples at a reputation engine operating on a computing device coupled to a network, each of said tuples comprising pre-selected set of identifiers relating to an origin of a message received at a server of a messaging system, wherein each tuple comprises an identifier that is deemed to be trusted by the reputation engine, each of said tuples having a different granularity of identification of the origin of the received message;
accessing, by the reputation engine, two or more reputation metrics in a database, each reputation metric associated with one of the plurality of tuples;
associating each of the plurality of tuples with a different, respective granularity of identification of the origin of the received message, wherein a tuple comprising a combination of a user identifier and an Internet Protocol (IP) address is assigned a higher granularity than a tuple comprising a combination of a domain name and an IP address;
calculating, at the reputation engine, a first value indicative of a likelihood that the received message is undesired using the two or more reputation metrics, wherein calculating the first value comprises overriding a first one of the two or more reputation metrics with a second one of the two or more reputation metrics, in response to the tuple of the second reputation metric being associated with a more finely grained identification of the origin of the received message than the tuple of the first reputation metric.
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Abstract
A system and method for providing a reputation service for use in messaging environments employs a reputation of compiled statistics, representing whether SPAM messages have previously been received from respective a selected set of identifiers for the origin of the message, in a decision making process for newly received messages. In a preferred embodiment, the set of identifiers includes the IP address, a tuple of the domain and IP address and a tuple of the user and IP address and the set of identifiers allows for a relatively fine grained set of reputation metrics to be compiled and used when making a determination of a likelihood as to whether a received message is undesired in accordance with the invention.
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Citations
23 Claims
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1. A method, comprising the steps of:
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receiving a plurality of tuples at a reputation engine operating on a computing device coupled to a network, each of said tuples comprising pre-selected set of identifiers relating to an origin of a message received at a server of a messaging system, wherein each tuple comprises an identifier that is deemed to be trusted by the reputation engine, each of said tuples having a different granularity of identification of the origin of the received message; accessing, by the reputation engine, two or more reputation metrics in a database, each reputation metric associated with one of the plurality of tuples; associating each of the plurality of tuples with a different, respective granularity of identification of the origin of the received message, wherein a tuple comprising a combination of a user identifier and an Internet Protocol (IP) address is assigned a higher granularity than a tuple comprising a combination of a domain name and an IP address; calculating, at the reputation engine, a first value indicative of a likelihood that the received message is undesired using the two or more reputation metrics, wherein calculating the first value comprises overriding a first one of the two or more reputation metrics with a second one of the two or more reputation metrics, in response to the tuple of the second reputation metric being associated with a more finely grained identification of the origin of the received message than the tuple of the first reputation metric. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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9. A system, comprising:
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a reputation engine operating on a computing device and coupled to a network; and a message server coupled to the network and configured to provide a plurality of tuples to the reputation engine responsive to receiving a message, each of the tuples comprising a combination of pre-selected identifiers relating to an originator of the received message, wherein each tuple comprises an identifier that is deemed to be trusted by the reputation engine, and wherein each of said tuples is assigned a different granularity of identification of the originator of the received message; wherein the reputation engine is configured to access two or more reputation metrics in a database, each of the two or more reputation metrics corresponding to one of the plurality of tuples; wherein the reputation engine is configured to associate each of the two or more reputation metrics with a respective granularity of identification of the originator of the received message, wherein a tuple comprising a combination of a user identifier and an Internet Protocol (IP) address is assigned a higher granularity than a tuple comprising a combination of a domain name and an IP address, and wherein the reputation engine is configured to calculate a first value indicative of a likelihood that the received message is undesired using the two or more reputation metrics, wherein calculating the first value comprises overriding a first one of the two or more reputation metrics with a second one of the two or more reputation metrics, in response to the tuple of the second reputation metric being associated with a more finely grained identification of the origin of the received message than the tuple of the first reputation metric. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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23. A method, comprising:
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receiving a message through a network interface of a message server; accessing a plurality of identifiers indicative of the origin of the received message; forming a plurality of tuples from the identifiers, at a reputation engine operating on a computing device, each tuple comprising a combination of two or more of the identifiers, wherein one of the two or more identifiers is deemed to be that is deemed to be trusted by the reputation engine; assigning a different granularity to each of the plurality of tuples, wherein the granularity assigned to a tuple is indicative of a granularity of identification of the origin of the received message provided by the tuple, wherein a tuple comprising a combination of a user identifier and an Internet Protocol (IP) address is assigned a higher granularity than a tuple comprising a combination of a domain name and an IP address; accessing two or more reputation metrics in a database, each of the two or more reputation metrics being associated with one of the tuples; and calculating a likelihood that the received message is undesired using the two or more reputation metrics, wherein calculating the first value comprises overriding a first one of the two or more reputation metrics with a second one of the two or more reputation metrics, in response to the tuple of the second reputation metric being associated with a more finely grained identification of the origin of the received message than the tuple of the first reputation metric.
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Specification