System and method for securing information distribution via email

• US 8,793,185 B1
• Filed: 08/16/2001
• Issued: 07/29/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/21/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Hollier, Ian V., Waterston, Michael L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Dass, Harish T
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chencinski, Siegfried E
• Application Number:
  US09/930,791
• Time in Patent Office: 4,730 Days
• Field of Search: 705/42, 705/26, 705/27, 705/40
• US Class Current: 705/40
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/102 Bill distribution or payments
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/108 Remote banking, e.g. home banking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/1085 involving automatic teller machines [ATMs]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/04 for providing a confidential data exchange among entities communicating through data packet networks

Abstract

A method facilitating secure financial transactions using email is presented comprising the steps of receiving bill data at a server implementing the method, and generating an email message to a recipient with information including at least a portion of the received bill data. The amount of bill data included in the email message is based, at least in part, on the email address of the recipient.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

constructing a message including an interface which, when executed, establishes a secure communication channel through which a web page is received to securely display information in a view window within a body of the message such that the information and at least a portion of the message are to be displayed concurrently; and

sending the constructed message to an appropriate bill recipient.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein the interface is a call to an application service provider (ASP) hosting electronic bill presentment and payment (EBPP) services.

3. A method according to claim 2, wherein the call to the application service provider is accompanied by information that contains a secret key associated with the bill recipient.

4. A method according to claim 3, wherein the information is included in a cookie.

5. A method according to claim 3, wherein the secret key is uniquely assigned to the bill recipient upon registering with the application service provider.

6. A method according to claim 3, wherein the information includes one or more of an identifier of the bill recipient, an email address of the bill recipient, and/or a date-time stamp of when the message was sent.

7. A method according to claim 3, wherein the secret key is generated in accordance with a pretty good privacy (PGP) encryption schema.

8. A method according to claim 1, wherein the interface is an HTML frameset tag.

9. A method according to claim 1, wherein the interface includes an identifier of the intended billing recipient.

10. A method according to claim 1, wherein the sending the constructed message comprises:

sending the constructed message only if the constructed message is not to travel through an un-secure server; and

sending another message that includes two message bodies, wherein a first message body of the other message includes an interface, and wherein a second message body of the other message includes a text message denoting an address for manually establishing a secure communication channel if the message is to travel through an un-secure server.

11. A method according to claim 10, wherein the address is a uniform resource locator (URL).

12. A method according to claim 10, wherein the first message body of the other message is generated using hypertext markup language (HTML) instructions, which when rendered by a browser executing on a receiving computing system, includes the interface to establish the secure communication channel.

13. A method according to claim 10, wherein the interface is an HTML frameset tag to server comprising billing information destined for the user.

14. A method according to claim 1, wherein secure communication channel is established using a secure socket layer (SSL) connection.

15. A method according to claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a request for billing information, automatically generated upon activation of the sent message by the user; and

establishing a secure communication channel with a computing system of the user to provide billing information in the view window within the body of the message upon authentication of the user.

16. A method according to claim 15, wherein the request includes an authentication parameter comprising one or more of a consumer identifier, an email address, a date-time stamp, and a computing system identifier.

17. A method according to claim 16, wherein the authentication parameter is included in a cookie accompanying the request.

18. A method according to claim 16, wherein establishing a secure communication channel to provide billing information further comprises:

retrieving billing information associated with the user based, at least in part, on the received authentication parameters;

sending the retrieved billing information to the user over a secure socket layer (SSL) communication channel.

19. A method according to claim 1, wherein the constructing comprises:

receiving bill data; and

including at least a portion of the bill data in the message, wherein the amount of bill data included in the message is based at least in part on an email address of the bill recipient.

20. A method according to claim 19, wherein the amount of bill data included in the message is further based at least in part on how secure a link to the bill recipient is.

21. A computing system comprising:

a storage medium including a plurality of executable instructions; and

an execution unit, coupled to the storage medium, to selectively execute at least a subset of the plurality of executable instructions to implement a method according to claim 1.

47. The method of claim 1, wherein the constructing comprises determining whether the message is to travel through an un-secure server;

providing a link to a secure web page instead of the information to be displayed in the view window within the body of the message in response to determining the message is to travel through an un-secure server; and

enabling the interface to establish the secure communication channel in response to determining the message is not to travel through an un-secure server.

22. An electronic bill payment and presentment system comprising:

a network interface, to communicatively couple the system to a network; and

an email generator, to construct a message including an interface which, when executed, establishes a secure communication channel through which a web page is received to securely display information in a view window within a body of the message such that the information and at least a portion of the message are to be displayed concurrently.

23. A system according to claim 22, wherein the information includes electronic billing information.

24. A system according to claim 22, wherein the email generator sends the constructed message to a user via the simple mail transfer protocol (SMTP) system.

25. A system according to claim 22, wherein the interface includes a call to web server via a secure socket layer (SSL) connection.

26. A system according to claim 25, wherein the message includes authentication parameters to authenticate the user to the web server.

27. A system according to claim 22, further comprising:

a web server, coupled to the network, to receive the request for the web page, authenticate the requesting user, and download the web page to the view window within the body of the message.

28. A system according to claim 27, wherein the web server hosts the email generator.

29. A method comprising:

receiving an electronic mail message, wherein the electronic mail message includes an interface; and

establishing, via the interface, a secure communication channel through which a web page is received to securely display information in a view window within a body of the electronic mail message such that the information and at least a portion of the electronic mail message are to be displayed concurrently.

30. A method according to claim 29, further comprising displaying the electronic mail message to a user.

31. A method according to claim 29, wherein the interface is a call to an application service provider (ASP) hosting electronic bill presentment and payment (EBPP) services.

32. A method according to claim 31, wherein the call to the application service provider is accompanied by information that contains a secret key associated with a bill recipient.

33. A method according to claim 32, wherein the secret key is uniquely assigned to the bill recipient upon registering with the application service provider.

34. A method according to claim 32, wherein the information includes one or more of an identifier of the bill recipient, an email address of the bill recipient, and a date-time stamp of when the electronic mail message was sent.

35. A method according to claim 29, wherein the interface is a hypertext markup language (HTML) frameset tag.

36. A method according to claim 29, further comprising:

automatically generating, upon activation of the electronic mail message, a request for billing information; and

establishing the secure communication channel with a computing system to provide billing information in the view window within the body of the electronic mail message.

37. One or more computer readable memory devices having stored thereon a plurality of instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to:

receive a request for billing information; and

establish a secure communication channel with a computing system of the bill recipient to provide billing information for secure display to the bill recipient in a view window within a body of a message upon authentication of the bill recipient such that the information and at least a portion of the message are to be displayed concurrently.

38. One or more computer readable memory devices according to claim 37, wherein the request includes an authentication parameter comprising one or more of a consumer identifier, an email address, a date-time stamp, and a computing system identifier.

39. One or more computer readable memory devices according to claim 38, wherein the authentication parameter is included in a cookie accompanying the request.

40. One or more computer readable memory devices according to claim 38, wherein the instructions that cause the one or more processors to establish a secure communication channel to provide billing information further cause the one or more processors to:

retrieve billing information associated with the bill recipient based, at least in part, on the received authentication parameters; and

send the retrieved billing information to the bill recipient over a secure socket layer (SSL) communication channel.

41. One or more computer readable memory devices having stored thereon an electronic mail message data structure, comprising:

a first portion identifying a bill recipient that is to receive the electronic mail message; and

a second portion including an interface that, when executed, establishes a secure communication channel through which a web page corresponding to the bill recipient identified in the first portion is received, wherein the billing information for the bill recipient is displayed in a view window within a body of the electronic mail message concurrently with at least a portion of the electronic mail message.

42. A computer readable memory devices according to claim 41, wherein the interface is a call to an application service provider (ASP) hosting electronic bill presentment and payment (EBPP) services.

43. One or more computer readable memory devices having stored thereon a plurality of instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to output a graphical user interface comprising:

a first portion identifying a bill recipient that is to receive a message, wherein the graphical user interface is included in the message; and

a second portion including one or more instructions which, when executed, establish, if the message is not to travel through an un-secure server, a secure communication channel through which a web page is received to securely display information in a view window within a body of the message such that the information and at least a portion of the message are to be displayed concurrently.

44. A method for communicating bill information over a secure email system by a user of the secure email system, the method comprising:

constructing a message including an interface which, when executed, establishes a secure communication channel through which a web page is received to securely display information in a view window within a body of the message such that the information and at least a portion of the message are to be displayed concurrently; and

sending the constructed message to an appropriate bill recipient over the secure email system, wherein the recipient is a non-user of the secure email system, wherein non-users have not registered for a service of the secure email system.

45. The method of claim 44, wherein the recipient does not have an account on the secure email system.

46. The method of claim 44, further comprising receiving a bill via the secure email system.