Method and apparatus for preserving confidentiality of electronic mail
AssigneeIntel Corporation
InventorRajasekhar Sistla
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method and an apparatus for preserving confidentiality of an electronic mail are disclosed. One embodiment of the present invention, or an electronic mail confidentiality preserver of an email client, includes an input-processing engine and an encryption/decryption engine that is coupled to the input-processing engine. Based on a confidentiality level, the input-processing engine mainly limits abilities of a user of the email client to manipulate an electronic mail received by the email client. On the other hand, the encryption/decryption engine mainly limits the user's access to a local storage if the user's access involves an electronic mail.
Claims21
A method for preserving confidentiality of an electronic mail from a sender to a recipient, comprising:
- authenticating identity information of the recipient;
- restricting the recipient's ability to manipulate the electronic mail based on a confidentiality level established by the sender;
- encrypting the electronic mail with the authenticated identity information if the recipient attempts to store the electronic mail to a local storage;
- and
- decrypting the electronic mail if the recipient attempts to retrieve the electronic mail from the local storage.
An electronic mail confidentiality preserver of an email client, comprising:
- an input-processing engine to limit abilities of a user of the email client to manipulate an electronic mail received by the email client based on a confidentiality level;
- and
- an encryption/decryption engine, coupled to the input-processing engine, to limit the user's access to a local storage if the user's access involves an electronic mail.
A electronic mail client, comprising:
- a user interface;
- a communication engine;
- a local storage;
- and an electronic mail confidentiality preserver, coupled to the user interface, coupled to the communication engine and coupled to the local storage, wherein the electronic mail confidentiality preserver further comprises:
- an input-processing engine to limit abilities of a user of the email client to manipulate an electronic mail received by the email client based on a user-selected confidentiality level;
- and
- an encryption/decryption engine, coupled to the input-processing engine, to limit the user's access to the local storage if the user's access involves an electronic mail.
A machine readable medium including a plurality of instructions readable therefrom, the instructions, when executed by a computer system, cause the computer system to perform operations comprising:
- authenticating identity information of a recipient of an electronic mail;
- restricting the recipient's ability to manipulate the electronic mail based on a confidentiality level established by a sender of the electronic mail;
- encrypting the electronic mail with the authenticated identity information if the recipient attempts to store the electronic mail to a local storage;
- and
- decrypting the electronic mail if the recipient attempts to retrieve the electronic mail from the local storage.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.