System, method, and computer program product for security verification of communications to tenants of an on-demand database service

• US 9,736,168 B2
• Filed: 05/13/2015
• Issued: 08/15/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 01/22/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Inventors: Mencke, Rasmus, Cadden, Michael P., Stevens, Richard Alan, Kimble, Ron H., Corson, Travis D., Shanabrook, Susan Carol
• Primary Examiner(s): Gelagay, Shewaye
• Assistant Examiner(s): Fields, Courtney
• Application Number:
  US14/711,669
• Publication Number:
  US 20150244726A1
• Time in Patent Office: 825 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/23 Reliability checks, e.g. acknowledgments or fault reporting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/101 Access control lists [ACL]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/105 Multiple levels of security
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/12 Applying verification of the received information cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for data integrity or data verification H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/32 including means for verifying the identity or authority of a user of the system or for message authentication, e.g. authorization, entity authentication, data integrity or data verification, non-repudiation, key authentication or verification of credentials

Abstract

In accordance with embodiments, there are provided mechanisms and methods for security verification of communications to tenants of an on-demand database service. These mechanisms and methods for security verification of communications to tenants of an on-demand database service can enable embodiments to allow tenants to selectively implement security measures with respect to inbound communications, etc. The ability of embodiments to provide such feature may allow tenants to efficiently and effectively implement security measures for in-bound emails.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon a plurality of instructions that, when executed by a computer system, cause operations comprising:

receiving, at a receiving message system, a communication sent via a sending message system to a user associated with a first tenant of a multi-tenant database system;

storing, for the first tenant, a security preference indicating a desire to apply, to communications sent to users associated with the first tenant, all security processes supported by both the sending message system and the receiving message system;

based on the security preference of the first tenant, selecting a plurality of security processes from a set of available security processes, wherein the plurality of security processes are those security processes supported by both the sending message system and the receiving message system;

applying the plurality of security processes to the communication;

receiving result indications for the plurality of security processes;

determining, based on the result indications, whether the communication passes the plurality of security processes; and

in response to determining that the communication passes the plurality of security processes, routing the communication to the user.

2. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the communication passing the plurality of security processes includes determining that at least one of the plurality of security processes passed and none of the plurality of security processes failed.

3. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

in response to determining that the communication passes the plurality of security processes, processing the communication.

4. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 3, wherein processing the communication includes at least one of extracting text from the communication, generating contact information based on the communication, or establishing a calendar event based on the communication.

5. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 3, wherein processing the communication comprises:

accessing, based on a sender of the communication, sender-specific computer code; and

executing the sender-specific computer code to perform operations on the communication.

6. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the security preference of the first tenant is specified by a system administrator.

7. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the security preference of the user is based on an identity of a sender of the communication.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

comparing a portion of an email address of a sender of the communication with a list of accepted email addresses.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the applying the plurality of security processes includes implementing one or more security protocols.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the one or more security protocols includes at least one of a Sender Policy Framework (SPF) security protocol, a Sender ID security protocol, a DomainKeys security protocol, or a DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) security protocol.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

in response to determining that the communication does not pass the plurality of security processes, performing at least one of deleting the communication, returning the communication to a sender of the communication, or routing the communication to a specified location for undeliverable communications.

9. A method, comprising:

receiving, at a receiving message system, a communication sent via a sending message system to a user associated with a first tenant of a multi-tenant database system;

storing, for the first tenant, a security preference indicating a desire to apply, to communications sent to users associated with the first tenant, all security processes supported by both the sending message system and a receiving message system;

based on the security preference of the first tenant, selecting a plurality of security processes from a set of available security processes, wherein the plurality of security processes are those security processes supported by both the sending message system and the receiving message system;

applying the plurality of security processes to the communication;

receiving result indications for the plurality of security processes;

determining, based on the result indications, whether the communication passes the plurality of security processes; and

in response to determining that the communication passes the plurality of security processes, routing the communication to the user.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the communication passes the plurality of security processes when the result indications indicate a pass of at least one of the plurality of security processes and the result indications do not indicate a fail of any of the plurality of security processes.

10. An apparatus, comprising:

at least one processor; and

a memory having instructions stored thereon configured to cause the apparatus to;

receive, at a receiving message system, a communication sent via a sending message system to a user associated with a first tenant of a multi-tenant database system;

store, for the first tenant, a security preference indicating a desire to apply, to communications sent to users associated with the first tenant, all security processes supported by both the sending message system and the receiving message system;

based on the security preference of the first tenant, select a plurality of security processes from a set of available security processes, wherein the plurality of security processes are those supported by both the sending message system and the receiving message system;

apply the plurality of security processes to the communication;

receive result indications for the plurality of security processes; and

determine, based on the result indications, whether the communication passes the plurality of security processes; and

in response to determining that the communication passes the plurality of security processes, routing the communication to the user.