SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR VERIFYING DELIVERY AND INTEGRITY OF ELECTRONIC MESSAGES

• US 20120303956A1
• Filed: 07/16/2012
• Published: 11/29/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 07/28/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: RPost Communications Limited (RPost International Limited)
• Original Assignee: RPost International Limited
• Inventors: Tomkow, Terrance A.
• Granted Patent: US 8,782,154 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/168
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/00 User-to-user messaging in packet-switching networks, transmitted according to store-and-forward or real-time protocols, e.g. e-mail
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/23 Reliability checks, e.g. acknowledgments or fault reporting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/234 for tracking messages

Abstract

A server transmits a message from a sender to a destination address. During transmission, the server and the destination address have a dialog constituting an attachment, via a particular one of SMTP and ESMTP protocols, concerning the message, the server and the destination address. The message passes through servers between the server and the destination address. This passage is included in the attachment. Verifiers are provided for the message and for the attachments. The verifiers may constitute encrypted hashes of the message and of the attachment. The sender receives the message, the attachments and the verifications from the server before authentication and transmits the message, the attachments and the verifiers to the server to obtain authentication by the server. The server operates on the message and the message verifier to authenticate the message and operates on the attachments and the attachments'"'"' verifier to verify the attachments.

Claims

1-38. -38. (canceled)

39. A method of transmitting an e-mail message from a sender through a server functioning as a Mail Transport Agent to a recipient, including the steps at the server of:

connecting to the mail exchange (MX) server of the recipient'"'"'s domain,

initiating an SMTP or ESMTP dialog with the receiving server,

transmitting, as the MAIL-FROM address, an e-mail address controlled by the operator of the server and not the return address of the sender of the message, and receiving at this e-mail address any Delivery Status Notifications, Failure of Delivery of messages that may be transmitted by the receiving mail server as a consequence of attempting to deliver the message to the recipient address.

40. A method as set forth in claim 39, including the step, at the server, of:

generating for each transmitted message a string of characters which are unique to the message that may serve as a message identifier, and

for each addressee of the message. generating a string of characters which is unique to that addressee among all others addressed by the message and which may serve as a recipient identifier, and

incorporating the message identifier and the recipient identifier in the MAIL-FROM address transmitted to the receiving mail server.

41. A method as set forth in claim 39, including the steps of:

storing Delivery Status Notifications, Failure or Delay of messages received at the MAIL-FROM address in a way that allows them to be associated with the message and the instance of transmission of the message that prompted the message.

42. A method as set forth in claim 39, including the steps of:

transmitting Delivery Status Notifications, Failure or Delay of messages received at the MAIL-FROM address to the sender of the message that prompted them.

43. A method as set forth in claim 39, including the steps of:

transmitting Delivery Status Notifications, Failure or Delay of messages received at the MAIL-FROM address to the sender of the message that prompted them in an e-mail message that is digitally signed by the operator of the server.

44. A method as set forth in claim 39, including the steps of:

calculating a digital digest for each Delivery Status Notification, Failure or Delay notification received at the MAIL-FROM address,

encrypting the digital digest with an encryption key not known by the sender of the message,

sending the notification to the sender of the message which prompted it together with the encrypted digital digest.

45-46. -46. (canceled)

47. A method of transmitting an e-mail message from a sender through a server functioning as a Mail Transport Agent to a recipient, including the steps at the server of:

adding to the message, in formats recognized by various e-mail client programs. message headers eliciting delivery notifications from recipients email clients, where the e-mail address in the headers to which the notification is requested to be sent is an e-mail address controlled by the operator of the server and not the return address of the sender of the message.

48. In a method as set forth in claim 47, including the step of:

generating for each transmitted message a string of characters which are unique to the message that may serve as a message identifier, and

for each addressee of the message, generating a string of characters which is unique to that addressee among all others addressed by the message and which may serve as a recipient identifier, and

incorporating the message identifier and the recipient identifier into the address written in the headers as the address to which delivery receipts or opening notifications should be sent.

49. A method as set forth in claim 47, including the steps of:

storing received notifications in a manner that allows them to be associated with the message and the instance of transmission of the message that prompted the message.

50. A method as set forth in claim 47, including the steps of:

transmitting copies of received notifications to the sender of the message that prompted them.

51. A method as set forth in claim 47, including the steps of:

transmitting copies of received notifications to the sender of the message that prompted them in an e-mail message that is digitally signed by the operators of the server.

52. A method as set forth in claim 47, including the steps of:

calculating a digital digest for each received notification, and

encrypting the digital digest with an encryption key not known by the sender of the message, and

sending the notification to the sender of the message which prompted it together with the encrypted digital digest.

53. A method of directing the delivery of e-mail messages passing through servers acting as Mail Transport Agents wherein a software program examines the subject lines of queued outbound messages looking for specific strings of characters. and upon finding the characters, re-directs the message to a specific e-mail address.

54. A method of directing the routing of e-mail messages passing through servers acting as Mail Transport Agents wherein a software program examines the subject lines of queued outbound messages looking for specific strings of characters. and

upon finding the characters. routes the message to be delivered to a specific mail transport agent.

55. A method of transmitting an e-mail message from a sender through a server functioning as a Mail Transport Agent to a recipient. including the steps at the server of:

generating for each transmitted message a string of characters which are unique to the message that may serve as a message identifier, and

for each addressee of the message. generating a string of characters which is unique to that addressee among all others addressed by the message and which may serve as a recipient identifier, and

rendering the message, at least in part, in html format, and

incorporating within the html message text a reference to an HTTP URL controlled by the operators of the server so that an HTML enabled mail reader will attempt to connect to the URL when the message is displayed, and

incorporating within the reference to the external URL the message identifier and the recipient identifier in such a manner that these identifiers will be conveyed to the HTTP server at the referenced URL, and

transmitting the message to the recipient address, and

at the HTTP server detecting the IP address, message identifier and recipient identifier transmitted by an HTML enabled mail reader displaying the message,

56. A method as set forth in claim 55, including the steps of:

transmitting the detected opening information to the sender of the message.

57. A method as set forth in claim 55, including the steps of:

transmitting the detected opening information to the sender of the message in an e-mail message that is digitally signed by the operator of the server.

58. A method of receiving messages on behalf of a recipient at a server including the steps at the server of:

appending the date and time of receipt to the message, and

forwarding the message to the recipient'"'"'s electronic mailbox.

59. A method as set forth in claim 58, including the steps of:

digitally signing the message, including the server'"'"'s date and time stamp. before forwarding the message to the recipient'"'"'s electronic mailbox.

60. A method as set forth in claim 58, including the steps of:

appending to the message an encrypted copy of the server'"'"'s time and date stamp where the encryption key is not known to the message sender or recipient.

61. A method as set forth in claim 58, including the steps of:

computing a digital digest of the contents of the message, and

encrypting the digest using an encryption key not known to the message sender or recipient,

appending the encrypted digest to the message before forwarding a copy of the message to the recipient'"'"'s mailbox.

62. A method of transmitting a message from a sender to a recipient through a server acting as a message transport agent, including the steps at the server of:

transmitting the message to the recipient'"'"'s message transport agent using a message transport protocol and recording at the server at least a portion of a dialog generated by the message transport protocol when the message is transmitted between the sender and the recipient through the server including those portions of the dialog in which the recipient'"'"'s message transport agent accepts or declines delivery of the transmitted message.

63. The method as set forth in claim 62, including the step of:

storing the recorded dialog in some form in which it may be associated with the message and the sender and the recipient of the message in such a way that it may be used to document the delivery history of the message from the sender to the recipient.

64. The method as set forth in claim 62, including the step of:

storing a representation of the recorded dialog in a memory associated with the server.

65. The method as set forth in claim 62 including the step of:

returning to the sender a representation of the recorded dialog as proof of the successful delivery or failure to deliver the message to the recipient'"'"'s message transport agent.

66. The method as set forth in claim 62, including the step of:

returning to the sender an e-mail message that has been digitally signed by an operator of the server and which includes a representation of the recorded dialog as evidence of the successful delivery or failure to deliver the message to the recipient'"'"'s message transport agent.

67. The method, as set forth in claim 62, including the step of:

returning to the sender an e-mail message which includes;

a representation of the recorded dialog, and

a copy of the representation of the recorded dialog encrypted using an encryption key that is not known by the sender of the message.

68. The method as set forth in claim 62, including the step of:

transmitting to the sender a message which includes;

a representation of the recorded dialog, and

an encrypted copy of a digital digest of the representation of the recorded dialog using an encryption key that is not known by the sender of the message.

69. The method as set forth in claim 67, further including the steps at the server of transmitting to the sender a copy of the e-mail message which has been digitally signed by the operator of the server.

70. The method as set forth in claim 62, further comprising:

computing a digital digest of the message, and

transmitting the message to the recipient, and

saving the digital digest in some manner in which it may be associated with the message and the message sender and the recipient.

71. The method as set forth in claim 70, including the step of:

returning to the sender an e-mail message which includes an encrypted copy of the original message, where the encryption key is not known by the sender of the message.

72. The method as set forth in claim 70, including the step of:

returning to the sender an e-mail message which includes an encrypted copy of the digital digest of the original message where the encryption key is not known by the sender of the message.

73. The method of claim 62, further comprising:

determining from a representation of the recorded dialog whether the message was successfully delivered to the recipient'"'"'s message transport agent.

74. A system for transmitting a message from a sender to a recipient through a server acting as a message transport agent, comprising:

a server configured using programming commands to receive a message from a sender and to transmit the message to a recipient'"'"'s message transport agent using a message transport protocol and to record at the server at least a portion of a dialog generated by the message transport protocol when the message is transmitted between the sender and the recipient through the server including those portions of the dialog in which the recipient'"'"'s message transport agent accepts or declines delivery of the transmitted message.

75. The system of claim 74, wherein the server is further configured to

store the recorded dialog in some form in which it may be associated with the message and the sender and the recipient of the message in such a way that it may be used to document the delivery history of the message from the sender to the recipient.

76. The system of claim 74, further comprising:

a memory associated with the server;

wherein the server stores a representation of the recorded dialog in the memory.

77. The system of claim 74, wherein the server is also configured to return a representation of the recorded dialog as proof of the successful delivery or failure to deliver the message to the recipient'"'"'s message transport agent to the sender.

78. The system of claim 74, wherein the server is configured to return to the sender an e-mail message that has been digitally signed by an operator of the server and which includes a representation of the recorded dialog as evidence of the successful delivery or failure to deliver the message to the recipient'"'"'s message transport agent.

79. The system of claim 74, wherein the server is configured to return to the sender an e-mail message which includes a representation of the recorded dialog, and a copy of the representation of the recorded dialog encrypted using an encryption key that is not known by the sender of the message.

80. The system of claim 74, wherein the server is further configured to transmit to the sender a message which includes a representation of the recorded dialog, and an encrypted copy of a digital digest of the representation of the recorded dialog using an encryption key that is not known by the sender of the message.

81. The system of claim 79, wherein the server is configured to transmit to the sender a copy of the e-mail message which has been digitally signed by the operator of the server.

82. The system of claim 74, wherein the server is further configured to compute a digital digest of the message, to transmit the message to the recipient, and to save the digital digest in some manner in which it may be associated with the message and the message sender and the recipient.

83. The system of claim 82, wherein the server is configured to return to the sender an e-mail message which includes an encrypted copy of the original message, where the encryption key is not known by the sender of the message.

84. The system of claim 82, including the step of wherein the server is further configured to return to the sender an e-mail message which includes an encrypted copy of the digital digest of the original message where the encryption key is not known by the sender of the message.

85. The system of claim 74, wherein the server is further configured to determine from a representation of the recorded dialog whether the message was successfully delivered to the recipient'"'"'s message transport agent.