Email policy manager
AssigneeClearswift Limited
InventorJim Craigie
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An email policy is applied in a policy manager, running on a mail server in a local area network, to determine whether an outgoing email message should be allowed to be transmitted to a destination address outside the local area network, for example over the internet. A digital signature is used in the policy manager, to determine if the sender is the sender indicated in the message itself. If so, a sender-dependent policy is applied.
Claims16
A method of applying a sender-specific mail policy, the method comprising:
- maintaining a list of computer system users and associated sender-specific mail policies;
- receiving a mail message intended for further transmission, the mail message indicating a sender thereof;
- attempting to verify a digital signature in said mail message;
- if the mail message does contain a verified digital signature, and if a user corresponding to the verified digital signature corresponds to the sender indicated in the mail message, applying an associated sender-specific mail policy to said mail message;
- and
- if the outgoing mail message does not contain a verified digital signature corresponding to the sender indicated in the mail message, applying a default mail policy to said mail message.
A method of applying a sender-specific mail policy, for use in a boundary agent of a first computer network, the method comprising:
- (a) maintaining a list of users of said first computer network, and sender-specific mail policies associated with said users;
- (b) receiving from a user of said first computer network a mail message intended for further transmission over a second computer network, the mail message indicating a sender thereof;
- (c1) determining whether said mail message contains a digital signature, and, if so
- (c2) attempting to verify the digital signature;
- and
- (d) if the mail message does contain a verified digital signature, and if a user corresponding to the verified digital signature corresponds to the sender indicated in the mail message, applying to said mail message a sender-specific mail policy associated with said user.
A local computer network, comprising:
- a plurality of user computers;
- and
- a mail server;
- and having a connection to a second computer network, such that outgoing mail messages can be sent from the user computers to destination computers connected to the second computer network, and such that incoming mail messages can be sent to the user computers from transmitting computers connected to the second computer network,
- wherein the mail server maintains a list of users of said user computers and associated sender-specific mail policies;
- wherein, when said mail server receives an outgoing mail message, said outgoing mail message indicating a sender thereof, said mail server attempts to verify a digital signature in said outgoing mail message;
- and
- if the mail message does contain a verified digital signature, and if a user corresponding to the verified digital signature corresponds to the sender indicated in the mail message, said mail server applies an associated sender-specific mail policy to said mail message.
A computer program product, for use on a mail server in a local computer network, said local computer network further comprising:
- a plurality of user computers;
- and having a connection to a second computer network, such that outgoing mail messages can be sent from the user computers to destination computers connected to the second computer network, and such that incoming mail messages can be sent to the user computers from transmitting computers connected to the second computer network,
- wherein said computer program product causes the mail server to maintain a list of users of said user computers and associated sender-specific mail policies;
- wherein, when said mail server receives an outgoing mail message, said outgoing mail message indicating a sender thereof, said computer program product causes said mail server to attempt to verify a digital signature in said outgoing mail message;
- and
- if the mail message does contain a verified digital signature, and if a user corresponding to the verified digital signature corresponds to the sender indicated in the mail message, said computer program product causes said mail server to apply an associated sender-specific mail policy to said mail message.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.