US 8,301,703 B2 · Systems and methods for alerting administrators about suspect communications

Abstract

Systems, methods, and computer program products for alerting system administrators and owners about suspect communications, such as communications from open relay, blacklisted, and blocked computers, are disclosed. Embodiments comprise receiving information related to a communication of an electronic document from one computer to another, determining if the sending computer is either blacklisted, and alerting the administrator or owner of the sending computer if it is identified as suspect. In some embodiments, determining if the sending computer is suspect comprises examining blacklisted IP addresses and/or blacklisted domain names. Some embodiments determine the identity of the administrator by examining WHOIS database information. In some embodiments, alerting the administrator or owner comprises sending them an e-mail.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A method to alert an administrator of a first computer, the method comprising:

a second computer receiving information related to a communication of an electronic document, the electronic document being for delivery from the first computer to a third computer;
the second computer identifying the first computer as an open relay based upon the information;
the second computer preventing delivery of the electronic document to the third computer;
the second computer obtaining, via a simple mail transport protocol (SMTP) exchange domain or a mail exchanger (MX) record, contact information for the first computer;
the second computer transmitting a message based upon the contact information to indicate the first computer is an open relay;
and
the second computer sending an acknowledgement to the first computer, the acknowledgment informing the first computer that the second computer successfully received the communication but the electronic document is rejected, the acknowledgement causing the first computer to store the electronic document.

4 more elements

A computer system for alerting an administrator of a first computer that the first computer is an open relay, the computer system comprising:

one or more processors, one or more computer-readable memories and one or more computer-readable tangible storage devices;
program instructions, stored on at least one of the one or more storage devices for execution by at least one of the one or more processors via at least one of the one or more memories, to receive information associated with a communication of an electronic document from the first computer;
program instructions, stored on at least one of the one or more storage devices for execution by at least one of the one or more processors via at least one of the one or more memories, to determine, using the information, whether the first computer is listed in an open relay database;
program instructions, stored on at least one of the one or more storage devices for execution by at least one of the one or more processors via at least one of the one or more memories, to reject the electronic document in response to determining that the first computer is an open relay;
program instructions, stored on at least one of the one or more storage devices for execution by at least one of the one or more processors via at least one of the one or more memories, to obtain contact information for the first computer;
and
program instructions, stored on at least one of the one or more storage devices for execution by at least one of the one or more processors via at least one of the one or more memories, to transmit a message based upon the contact information, wherein the message indicates that the first computer is an open relay;
and
program instructions, stored on at least one of the one or more storage devices for execution by at least one of the one or more processors via at least one of the one or more memories, to send an acknowledgement to the first computer, the acknowledgment informing the first computer that the computer system successfully received the communication but the electronic document is rejected, the acknowledgement causing the first computer to store the electronic document;
wherein the program instructions to reject the electronic document in response to determining the first computer is an open relay prevent delivery of the electronic document to a user of the computer system;
and
wherein the program instructions to obtain contact information for the first computer perform a WHOIS query of a second computer.

9 more elements

A computer program product for alerting an administrator of a sending computer about an open relay status of the sending computer, the computer program product comprising:

one or more computer-readable tangible storage devices;
program instructions, stored on at least one of the one or more storage devices, to receive information related to a communication of an electronic document from the sending computer;
program instructions, stored on at least one of the one or more storage devices, to determine that the sending computer is an open relay based upon the information;
program instructions, stored on at least one of the one or more storage devices, to prevent delivery of the electronic document to a receiving computer so that a user of the receiving computer does not receive the electronic document;
program instructions, stored on at least one of the one or more storage devices, to obtain, via a simple mail transport protocol (SMTP) exchange domain or a mail exchanger (MX) record, contact information of the administrator;
program instructions, stored on at least one of the one or more storage devices, to transmit a message to alert the administrator that the sending computer is an open relay;
and
program instructions, stored on at least one of the one or more storage devices, to send an acknowledgement to the sending computer, the acknowledgment informing the sending computer that the communication was successfully received from the sending computer but the electronic document is rejected, the acknowledgement causing the sending computer to store the electronic document.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Systems and methods for alerting administrators about suspect communications

Life of this patent

Systems and methods for alerting administrators about suspect communications

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims20