Image based spam blocking
AssigneeSonicWALL, Inc.
InventorBong Gyoune Kim
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A fingerprint of an image identified within a received message is generated following analysis of the message. A spam detection engine identifies an image within a message and converts the image into a grey scale image. The spam detection engine analyzes the grey scale image and assigns a score. A fingerprint of the grey scale image is generated based on the score. The fingerprint may also be based on other factors such as the message sender's status (e.g. blacklisted or whitelisted) and other scores and reports generated by the spam detection engine. The fingerprint is then used to filter future incoming messages.
Claims21
A method for filtering image-based messages, the method comprising:
- receiving an image-based message from a sender;
- and
- executing instructions store d in memory, wherein execution of the instructions by a processor:
- identifies one or more text lines within an image of the image-based message,
- determines whether the one or more text lines fit a predetermined numeric pattern of characters and spaces,
- assigns a score to the message based on whether the text lines fit the numeric pattern, and
- filters the received image-based message based on the assigned score.
A system for filtering image-based messages, the system comprising:
- a communication interface for receiving an image-based message from a sender;
- and
- a processor for executing instructions store d in memory, wherein execution of the instructions by the processor:
- identifies one or more text lines within an image of the image-based message,
- determines whether the one or more text lines fit a predetermined numeric pattern of characters and spaces,
- assigns a score to the message based on whether the text lines fit the numeric pattern, and
- filters the received image-based message based on the assigned score.
A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, having embodied thereon a program executable by a processor to perform a method for filtering image-based messages, the method comprising:
- receiving an image-based message from a sender;
- identifying one or more text lines within an image of the image-based message;
- determining whether the one or more text lines fit a predetermined numeric pattern of characters and spaces;
- assigning a score to the message based on whether the text lines fit the numeric pattern, and
- filtering the received image-based message based on the assigned score.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.