Method and apparatus for selective E-mail processing

An apparatus for routing electronic mail to a plurality of message transfer agents, each message transfer agent having a respective amount of resources that configures a message transfer agent to a performance level associated with a level of trust, the apparatus comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a memory to store computer program instructions, the computer program instructions when executed on the processor cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
• receiving electronic mail traffic from a network source address;
• comparing the network source address to a stored list of network addresses;
• in response to determining that the network source address appears in the stored list of network addresses:
• determining a level of trust associated with the network source address;
• selecting a first message transfer agent of the plurality of message transfer agents based on the level of trust, each of the plurality of message transfer agents having a respective amount of resources that configures each message transfer agent to a performance level associated with a respective level of trust, and
• routing the electronic mail traffic to the first message transfer agent;
• and
• in response to determining that the network source address does not appear in the stored list of network addresses:
• assigning a particular level of trust to the network source address based on the electronic mail traffic and a threshold and a percentage of unknown recipients associated with previous traffic from the network source address;
• selecting a second message transfer agent of the plurality of message transfer agents based on the particular level of trust;
• and
• routing the electronic mail traffic to the second message transfer agent.

A non-transitory computer readable medium storing computer program instructions for routing electronic mail to a plurality of message transfer agents, each message transfer agent having a respective amount of resources that configures a message transfer agent to a performance level associated with a level of trust, which, when executed on a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

• receiving electronic mail traffic from a network source address;
• comparing the network source address to a stored list of network addresses;
• in response to determining that the network source address appears in the stored list of network addresses:
• determining a level of trust associated with the network source address;
• selecting a first message transfer agent of the plurality of message transfer agents based on the level of trust, each of the plurality of message transfer agents having a respective amount of resources that configures each message transfer agent to a performance level associated with a respective level of trust, and
• routing the electronic mail traffic to the first message transfer agent;
• and
• in response to determining that the network source address does not appear in the stored list of network addresses:
• assigning a particular level of trust to the network source address based on the electronic mail traffic and a threshold and a percentage of unknown recipients associated with previous traffic from the network source address;
• selecting a second message transfer agent of the plurality of message transfer agents based on the particular level of trust;
• and
• routing the electronic mail traffic to the second message transfer agent.