System and methods for detecting malicious email transmission

• US 8,931,094 B2
• Filed: 03/21/2013
• Issued: 01/06/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/16/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Trustees Of Columbia University In The City Of New York (Columbia University)
• Original Assignee: Trustees Of Columbia University In The City Of New York (Columbia University)
• Inventors: Stolfo, Salvatore J., Eskin, Eleazar, Herskop, Shlomo, Bhattacharyya, Manasi
• Primary Examiner(s): Yalew, Fikremariam A
• Application Number:
  US13/848,529
• Publication Number:
  US 20130239210A1
• Time in Patent Office: 656 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 726/22
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/212 using filtering or selective blocking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1425 Traffic logging, e.g. anomaly detection
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/145 the attack involving the propagation of malware through the network, e.g. viruses, trojans or worms

Abstract

A system and methods of detecting an occurrence of a violation of an email security policy of a computer system. A model relating to the transmission of prior emails through the computer system is defined which is derived from statistics relating to the prior emails. For selected emails to be analyzed, statistics concerning the selected email are gathered. Such statistics may refer to the behavior or other features of the selected emails, attachments to emails, or email accounts. The determination of whether a violation of an email security policy has occurred is performed by applying the model of prior email transmission to the statistics relating to the selected email. The model may be statistical or probabilistic. A model of prior email transmission may include grouping email recipients into cliques. A determination of a violation of a security policy may occur if email recipients for a particular email are in more than one clique.

Claims

1. A method for monitoring transmission of email through a computer system, said computer system comprising a server and one or more clients having an email account, the method comprising:

(a) gathering statistics relating to transmission behavior of prior emails relating to a first email account on said computer system;

(b) generating a profile relating to the transmission behavior of email relating to said first email account based on said statistics, wherein generating a profile comprises grouping email addresses into one or more cliques based on the prior occurrence of email addresses within the same emails in a group of mails; and

(c) determining if a violation of email security has occurred by comparing one or more select emails relating to said first email account to said profile.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein gathering statistics relating to the transmission behavior of prior emails comprises gathering statistics relating to the email addresses of emails sent to said first email account.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein gathering statistics relating to the transmission behavior of prior emails comprises gathering statistics relating to the email addresses of email sent by said first email account.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein gathering statistics relating to the transmission behavior of prior emails comprises gathering statistics relating to the number of emails sent by said first email account.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein gathering statistics relating to the transmission behavior of prior emails comprises gathering statistics relating to the transmission of email between said first email account and one or more additional email accounts.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein gathering statistics relating to the transmission behavior of prior emails further comprises gathering statistics relating to the number of emails transmitted between said first email account and said one or more additional email accounts.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein generating a profile relating to the transmission behavior of email further comprises ordering said one or more additional email accounts according to the number of emails transmitted between said first email account and each of said respective additional email accounts.

8. The method according to claim 6, wherein generating a profile relating to the transmission behavior of email further comprises grouping said one or more additional email accounts according to the number of mails transmitted between said first email account and each of said respective additional email accounts.

9. The method according to claim 5, wherein generating a profile relating to the transmission behavior of email further comprises grouping said one or more additional email accounts according to the domain of each of said additional email accounts.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein gathering statistics relating to the transmission behavior of prior emails further comprises assigning a unique identifier to each email sent to said first email account.

11. The method according to claim 5, wherein gathering statistics relating to the transmission behavior of prior emails further comprises assigning a unique identifier to each email sent between said first email account and one or more additional email accounts.