Distributed sender reputations

• US 20060277259A1
• Filed: 06/07/2005
• Published: 12/07/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 06/07/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Mehr, John D., Rehfuss, Paul S., Murphy, Elissa E.S., Howell, Nathan D.
• Application Number:
  US11/146,502
• Publication Number:
  US 20060277259A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/212 using filtering or selective blocking

Abstract

Distributed sender reputations are described. In an implementation, a method includes evaluating multiple characteristics of message delivery to establish a reputation for a sender of the message by a mail transfer agent and sharing data which describes the evaluation with another mail transfer agent.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

evaluating multiple characteristics of message delivery to establish a reputation for a sender of the message by a mail transfer agent; and

sharing data which describes the evaluation with another mail transfer agent.

2. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the data is utilized by each said mail transfer agent to control a connection with the sender.

3. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the data is suitable for generating a reputation by the other mail transfer agent.

4. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the sharing is performed using a peer-to-peer network.

5. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the reputation indicates a relative likelihood that the sender sends malicious messages.

6. A method as described in claim 5, wherein one or more said malicious messages include unsolicited commercial messages, requests for personally identifiable information or messages having viruses.

7. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the message is an email or an instant message.

8. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the sharing is performed through communication of the data over a network to a central reputation service.

9. A method as described in claim 8, wherein the central reputation service is configured to share data aggregated by the central reputation service with another central reputation service.

10. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the mail transfer agent is included in one cluster domain and the other mail transfer agent is included in another cluster domain.

11. A method comprising:

obtaining data from a plurality of mail transfer agents, wherein the data is suitable for generating a reputation to describe a relative likelihood that a sender sends malicious messages; and

aggregating the data in a data repository for communication to one or more said mail transfer agents such that one or more said mail transfer agents establishes a reputation for a sender of the messages received by another one of the plurality of mail transfer agents.

12. A method as described in claim 11, wherein the one or more said mail transfer agents have not received a message from the sender.

13. A method as described in claim 11, wherein the one or more said mail transfer agents adjust a preexisting reputation based on the aggregated data.

14. A method as described in claim 11, wherein the reputation is utilized to control a connection with the sender.

15. A method as described in claim 11, wherein the obtaining and the aggregating are performed by a central reputation service that is accessible to the plurality of mail transfer agents over a network.

16. A method as described in claim 11, wherein a first said mail transfer agent is included in a first cluster domain and a second said mail transfer agent is included in a second cluster domain.

17. A system comprising a plurality of mail transfer agents that are communicatively coupled, one to another, to share data suitable for determining a relative likelihood that a message sender sends malicious messages.

18. A system as described in claim 17, wherein the plurality of mail transfer agents are arranged such that at least one said mail transfer agent is included in a cluster domain and another said mail transfer agent is included in another cluster domain.

19. A system as described in claim 17, further comprising a central reputation service which is configured to aggregate data obtained from the plurality of mail transfer agents.

20. A system as described in claim 17, wherein the plurality of mail transfer agents is communicatively coupled, one to another, over a peer-to-peer network.