PROTECTING SENSITIVE EMAIL

• US 20120011361A1
• Filed: 07/08/2010
• Published: 01/12/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 07/08/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Forcepoint Federal Holdings LLC (Forcepoint LLC)
• Original Assignee: Raytheon Company (Rtx Corporation)
• Inventors: Guerrero, Richard, Sellier, Nicholas
• Granted Patent: US 8,448,246 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/168
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6245 Protecting personal data, e.g. for financial or medical purposes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/212 using filtering or selective blocking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0236 Filtering by address, protocol, port number or service, e.g. IP-address or URL
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/105 Multiple levels of security

Abstract

According to one embodiment, a plurality of components are located within an appliance configured to send and receive email. The appliance receives an email and selects one or more policies to apply based on a designation indicating that the email communicates sensitive information. The policies determine whether to allow or block the email according to rules for assuring email. If the email is allowed, the appliance directs the email to one or more recipients.

Claims

1. An appliance comprising:

a plurality of components configured to;

receive an email;

determine that the email is designated as communicating sensitive information;

apply one or more policies selected according to the designation, the one or more policies comprising rules for assuring email;

determine whether to allow or block the email based on the policies; and

direct the email to one or more recipients if the email is allowed, each of the plurality of components located within the appliance.

2. An appliance comprising:

a mail delivery agent operable to;

receive an email comprising a designation, the designation indicating whether the email communicates sensitive information; and

divert the email; and

an adjudicator operable to;

receive the email diverted from the mail delivery agent;

apply one or more policies to the email, the one or more policies selected according to the designation, the one or more policies comprising rules for assuring email; and

determine whether to allow or block the email based on the policies; and

a mail transfer agent operable to direct the email to one or more recipients if the email is allowed.

3. The appliance of claim 2, further comprising:

an auditor operable to;

create an audit record for the email;

receive a notification indicating whether the email was allowed or blocked; and

determine the information to include in the audit record based on the notification.

4. The appliance of claim 2, the adjudicator further comprising:

a firewall operable to block the email upon detection of a trigger condition;

a content scanner operable to block the email upon detection of a sensitive term that is not authorized for the email'"'"'s designation; and

an anti-virus module operable to block the email upon detection of a virus.

5. The appliance of claim 2, the adjudicator further comprising a firewall operable to block the email upon detection of a trigger condition, the trigger condition indicating that:

a file size of the email exceeds a maximum allowable file size;

the email comprises an unauthorized file type;

or

at least one of the recipients is not authorized to receive sensitive information associated with the designation.

6. The appliance of claim 2, the adjudicator further comprising an encryption-decryption module operable to:

receive a first copy of the email, the first copy encrypted according to an encryption certificate associated with the adjudicator;

receive a second copy of the email, the second copy encrypted according to an encryption certificate associated with at least one of the recipients;

decrypt the first copy of the email prior to applying the one or more policies; and

direct the second copy of the email to the mail transfer agent upon a determination that the first copy of the email complies with the selected one or more policies.

7. The appliance of claim 2, the designation further comprising:

a classification level identifying a class of candidate recipients authorized to receive sensitive information; and

one or more caveats indicating a subset of the candidate recipients, the subset of candidate recipients authorized to receive the particular sensitive information of the email.

8. The appliance of claim 2, the designation further comprising a classification level selected from the group consisting of top secret, secret, confidential, for official use only, unclassified, and private.

9. The appliance of claim 2, the mail delivery agent further comprising a webmail delivery agent, the webmail delivery agent configured to prevent copying the email locally on a computer associated with a sender or the one or more recipients.

10. A method comprising:

receiving an email at an appliance;

determining that the email is designated as communicating sensitive information;

applying one or more policies selected according to the designation, the one or more policies comprising rules for assuring email;

determining whether to allow or block the email based on the policies; and

directing the email to one or more recipients if the email is allowed.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

creating an audit record for the email;

receiving a notification indicating whether the email was allowed or blocked; and

determining the information to include in the audit record based on the notification.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

blocking the email upon detection of;

a trigger condition;

a sensitive term that is not authorized for the email'"'"'s designation;

or

a virus.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

blocking the email upon detection of a trigger condition, the trigger condition indicating that;

a file size of the email exceeds a maximum allowable file size;

the email comprises an unauthorized file type;

or

at least one of the recipients is not authorized to receive sensitive information associated with the designation.

14. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

receiving a first copy of the email, the first copy encrypted according to an encryption certificate associated with the appliance;

receiving a second copy of the email, the second copy encrypted according to an encryption certificate associated with at least one of the recipients;

decrypting the first copy of the email prior to applying the one or more policies; and

directing the second copy of the email to the recipient upon a determination that the first copy of the email complies with the selected one or more policies.

15. The method of claim 10, the designation further comprising:

a classification level identifying a class of candidate recipients authorized to receive sensitive information; and

one or more caveats indicating a subset of the candidate recipients, the subset of candidate recipients authorized to receive the particular sensitive information of the email.

16. The method of claim 10, the designation further comprising a classification level selected from the group consisting of top secret, secret, confidential, for official use only, unclassified, and private.

17. A method comprising:

receiving a request to compose an email from a sender, the request including a designation indicating whether the email communicates sensitive information;

sending a list of one or more candidate recipients to the sender, each candidate recipient authorized to receive sensitive information associated with the designation; and

receiving a list of one or more selected recipients from the sender, the selected recipients selected only from the list of candidate recipients.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

filtering the list of one or more candidate recipients according to the current location of the sender.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

filtering the list of one or more candidate recipients according to an organization of the sender, the filtered list including only a subset of candidate recipients associated with the organization.