Method and system for E-mail management of E-mail having embedded classification metadata

1. A method executed by a processor for management of e-mail messages having embedded classification metadata, the method comprising:

receiving a query from an end user to access an e-mail account by an e-mail client;

determining whether the query has come from an insecure e-mail client;

retrieving access rules for defining classification access restrictions for the e-mail client to access e-mail messages in the e-mail account, when the e-mail client is determined to be insecure; and

modifying the received query, before sending to an e-mail server storing the email account, the query being modified based on the retrieved access rules to exclude retrieval of e-mail messages based upon the embedded e-mail classification metadata;

sending the query to the e-mail server;

receiving e-mail messages from the e-mail server based upon the query by sensitivity associated with the classification access restrictions of the e-mail messages determined by inspecting classification metadata embedded in each e-mail message; and

sending the received e-mail messages to the e-mail client.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein sending the retrieved e-mail messages to the e-mail client further comprises sending only message header information for the excluded e-mail messages.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the e-mail client is a web mail client using HTML web access.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the e-mail client is an Outlook Web Access client.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the query is an structured query language (SQL) query.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

determining whether the e-mail client is entitled to view an e-mail message with attachments; and

modifying the query to exclude e-mail messages with attachments.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein determining whether the query has come from an insecure e-mail client further comprises determining an encryption level associated with the access client.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein determining whether the query has come from an insecure e-mail client further comprises identifying an originating location of the e-mail client.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the access rules define classification metadata to be excluded in the query.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the classification restrictions are defined as PERSONAL, UNCLASSIFIED, CONFIDENTIAL, SECRET.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the query is modified to exclude the viewing of any web based e-mail messages in the user's e-mail account Inbox that have not been classified.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the pre-defined access rules are provide in a javascript file.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the access rules define classification metadata to be included in the query.

14. The method of claim 1 further comprising initially receiving an user identifier and password associated with the e-mail account.

15. A system for management of e-mail messages having embedded classification metadata, the system comprising:

a memory; and

a processor for executing:

receiving a query from an end user to access an e-mail account by an e-mail client;

determining whether the query has come from an insecure e-mail client;

retrieving access rules for defining classification access restrictions for the e-mail client to access e-mail in the e-mail account, when the e-mail client is determined to be insecure;

modifying the received query, before sending to an e-mail server storing the email account, the query being modified based on the retrieved access rules to exclude retrieval of e-mail messages based upon the embedded e-mail classification metadata;

sending the query to the e-mail server;

receiving e-mail messages from the e-mail server based upon the query by sensitivity associated with the classification access restrictions of the e-mail messages determined by inspecting classification metadata embedded in each e-mail message; and

sending the received e-mail messages to the e-mail client.

16. A non-transitory computer readable medium containing instructions for providing management of e-mail messages having embedded classification metadata, the instructions which when executed by a processor performing:

receiving a query from an end user to access an e-mail account by an e-mail client;

determining whether the query has come from an insecure e-mail client;

retrieving access rules for defining classification access restrictions for the e-mail client to access e-mail messages in the e-mail account, when the e-mail client is determined to be insecure;

modifying the received query, before sending to an e-mail server storing the email account, the query being modified based on the retrieved access rules to exclude retrieval of e-mail messages based upon the embedded e-mail classification metadata;

sending the query to the e-mail server;

receiving e-mail messages from the e-mail server based upon the query by sensitivity associated with the classification access restriction of the e-mail messages determined by inspecting classification metadata embedded in each e-mail message; and

sending the received e-mail messages to the e-mail client.