System and method for providing secure remote email access

1. A system for distributing a search index for encrypted messages, the system comprising:

a storage device comprising a search index of at least a portion of a plurality of email messages stored in an email store, wherein the search index includes a first globally unique identifier (GUID) associated with a first email message; and

a processor executing code comprising:

code for providing the search index to a remote third party computing system;

code for encrypting the first email message to create a first encrypted message;

code for providing the first encrypted email message to a remote third party mail system; and

code for generating GUIDs for the plurality of email messages and storing the GUIDs in the search index, wherein the remote third party computing system is configured to receive search index requests comprising searches for keywords and in response to provide a list of the generated GUIDs that are associated with the keywords in the search index.

2. A system according to claim 1 , wherein the third party mail system is configured to receive email message retrieval requests comprising a GUID obtained from the third party computing system.

3. A system according to claim 1 , the processor further executing code comprising:

code for assigning the first GUID as an identifier of the first email message.

4. A system according to claim 3 , wherein the first GUID comprises at least one of an original message identifier, a combination of message header information, a hash of the message, and a generated random string.

5. A system according to claim 1 , wherein the processor further executes code for creating the search index at least in part by indexing one or more of keywords of a header, body text, and attachment into searchable data under the first GUID, wherein the searchable data precludes reconstruction of the first email message.

6. A system according to claim 5 , wherein the searchable data is generated using latent semantic analysis.

7. A system according to claim 1 , the processor further executing code comprising:

code for providing a cryptographic key used to encrypt the first email message to a remote cryptographic key store.

8. A system according to claim 7 , wherein the remote cryptographic key store is configured to provide the cryptographic key in response to a request for the key.

9. A method of distributing a search index for encrypted messages, comprising:

creating a search index of at least a portion of a plurality of email messages stored in an email store, wherein the search index includes a first globally unique identifier (GUID) associated with a first email message;

providing the search index to a remote third party computing system;

encrypting the first email message to create a first encrypted message;

providing the first encrypted email message to a remote third party mail system; and

generating GUIDs for the plurality of email messages and storing the GUIDs in the search index, wherein the remote third party computing system is configured to receive search index requests comprising searches for keywords and in response to provide a list of the generated GUIDs that are associated with the keywords in the search index.

10. A method according to claim 9 , wherein the third party mail system is configured to receive email message retrieval requests comprising generated by code executed by the processor of the system and obtained from the third party computing system.

11. A method according to claim 9 , further comprising:

assigning the first GUID as an identifier of the first email message.

12. A method according to claim 11 , wherein the first GUID comprises at least one of an original message identifier, a combination of message header information, a hash of the message, and a generated random string.

13. A method according to claim 9 , wherein creating the search index includes indexing keywords of one or more of a header, body text, and attachment into searchable data under the first GUID, wherein the searchable data precludes reconstruction of the first email message.

14. A method according to claim 13 , wherein the searchable data is generated using latent semantic analysis.

15. A method according to claim 9 , further comprising:

providing a cryptographic key used to encrypt the first email message to a remote cryptographic key store.

16. A method according to claim 15 , wherein the remote cryptographic key store is configured to provide the cryptographic key in response to a request for the key.

17. A system for distributing a search index for encrypted documents, the system comprising:

a storage device comprising a search index of at least a portion of documents stored in an electronic document repository, wherein the search index includes a first globally unique identifier (GUID) associated with a first document; and

a processor executing code comprising:

code for providing the search index to a remote third party computing system;

code for encrypting the first document to create a first encrypted document;

code for providing the first encrypted document to a remote third party document system; and

code for generating GUIDs for the documents and storing the GUIDs in the search index, wherein the remote third party computing system is configured to receive search index requests comprising searches for keywords and in response to provide a list of the generated GUIDs that are associated with the keywords in the search index.

18. A method of distributing a search index for encrypted documents, comprising:

generating a globally unique identifier (GUID) for each of a plurality of documents stored in an electronic document repository;

creating a search index of at least a portion of the plurality of documents, wherein the search index includes an association of keywords with the GUIDs of the documents that match the keywords, a first GUID associated with a first document;

providing the search index to a remote third party computing system, wherein the remote third party computing system is configured to receive search index requests comprising searches for keywords and in response to provide a list of the generated GUIDs that are associated with the keywords in the search index;

encrypting the first document to create a first encrypted document; and

providing the first encrypted document to a remote third party document system.

19. The system of claim 1 , wherein the third party computing system and the third party mail system exist outside the boundaries of an enterprise network of the system.

20. The method of claim 9 , wherein the search index requests are received from a remote email client, and wherein responsive to receiving the provided list of identifiers, the remote email client requests the email messages corresponding to the provided list of GUIDs from the remote third party mail system.