IP Library Granted Patent US 7,634,810
Granted Patent B2
US 7,634,810 · App. 11/129,222 · Granted Dec 15, 2009

Phishing detection, prevention, and notification

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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 7,634,810
App. No.
11/129,222
Granted
Dec 15, 2009
Kind
B2
Abstract

Phishing detection, prevention, and notification is described. In an embodiment, a messaging application facilitates communication via a messaging user interface, and receives a communication, such as an email message, from a domain. A phishing detection module detects a phishing attack in the communication by determining that the domain is similar to a known phishing domain, or by detecting suspicious network properties of the domain. In another embodiment, a Web browsing application receives content, such as data for a Web page, from a network-based resource, such as a Web site or domain. The Web browsing application initiates a display of the content, and a phishing detection module detects a phishing attack in the content by determining that a domain of the network-based resource is similar to a known phishing domain, or that an address of the network-based resource from which the content is received has suspicious network properties.

Claims (32)

1. One or more computer-readable storage media embodying computer readable instructions which, when executed, implement a method comprising:

rendering a messaging user interface to facilitate communication via a messaging application;

receiving a communication from a domain that is located in a country; and

detecting a phishing attack in the communication by at least one of determining that the domain from which the communication is received is similar to a known phishing domain and detecting suspicious network properties of the domain from which the communication is received; wherein detecting suspicious network properties includes the following:

detecting that the communication is received from the domain which is a newly established domain on the internet;

detecting that the communication is received from the domain which has a low static rank;

detecting that the content of the domain which includes multiple user-selectable links to a first network-based resource and the first network-based resource is configured to submit form data to a second network-based resource;

detecting that an IP (Internet protocol) address corresponding to the domain does not correlate with the country where the domain is located; and

detecting a phishing attack in the communication at least in part by examining a user-selectable link within the communication, wherein the communication contains a user-selectable link to a web site with a minimal amount of content or a user-selectable link to a little-trafficked site.

2. The computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 1 , wherein detecting the phishing attack includes detecting that a name of the domain is similar in edit-distance to the known phishing domain, the edit-distance being based at least in part on the likelihood of user confusion or on a site-specific change.

3. The computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 1 , further comprising comparing the domain to a list of known non-phishing domains to determine that the domain is not a phishing domain.

4. The computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 1 , wherein receiving the communication includes receiving an email, and wherein detecting the phishing attack includes examining data in a “From” field of the email.

5. The computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 1 , wherein receiving the communication includes receiving an email, and wherein detecting the phishing attack includes examining a display name in a “From” field of the email.

6. The computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 1 , further comprising sending an email, and wherein detecting the phishing attack includes examining data in at least one of a “To” field of the email, a “CC” (carbon copy) field of the email, or a “BCC” (blind carbon copy) field of the email.

7. The computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 1 , wherein detecting the phishing attack includes determining that the communication at least one of:

fails anti-spoofing detection;

contains suspicious text content;

is received from the domain which does not provide anti-spoofing information; or

is received via at least one of a dial-up, cable, or DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) communication link.

8. One or more computer-readable storage media embodying computer readable instructions which, when executed, implement a method comprising:

rendering a messaging user interface to facilitate communication via a messaging application;

receiving a communication from a domain that is located in a country;

detecting a phishing attack in the communication by detecting suspicious network properties of the domain from which the communication is received; wherein detecting suspicious network properties includes the following:

detecting that the communication is received from the domain which is a newly established domain on the internet;

detecting that the communication is received from the domain which has a low static rank;

detecting that the content of the domain which includes multiple user-selectable links to a first network-based resource and the first network-based resource is configured to submit form data to a second network-based resource;

detecting that an IP (Internet protocol) address corresponding to the domain does not correlate with the country where the domain is located; and

detecting a phishing attack in the communication at least in part by examining a user-selectable link within the communication, wherein the communication contains at least one of:

a user-selectable link to a web site with a minimal amount of content; or

a user-selectable link to a little-trafficked site.

9. The computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 8 , wherein detecting the phishing attack includes detecting a user-selectable link within the communication that includes at least one of an IP (Internet protocol) address, an “@” sign, or suspicious HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) encoding.

10. The computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 8 , wherein detecting the phishing attack includes detecting that the user-selectable link is a user-selectable link to at least one of a domain or a Web page that has a low static rank which is based at least in part on incoming links to the domain or to the Web page.

Assignments (2)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Dec 9, 2014
From: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
To: MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING, LLC
Reel/Frame 034543/0001 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Sep 9, 2005
From: GOODMAN, JOSHUA T.; REHFUSS, PAUL S.; ROUNTHWAITE, ROBERT L.; MISHRA, MANAV; HULTEN, GEOFFREY J.; RICHARDS, KENNETH G.; AVERBUCH, AARON H.; PENTA, ANTHONY P.; DEYO, RODERIC C.
To: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
Reel/Frame 016760/0244 →