Granted Patent B2

US 9,929,991 · App. 15/267,658 · Granted Mar 27, 2018

Abstract

Claims (99)

1. A program storage device, on which is stored instructions for determining whether to allow traversal of a hyperlink embedded in an email, comprising instructions that when executed by one or more processors causes an email gateway to:

receive an email;

create a message identifier for the email;

generate meta-information corresponding to the email;

store the meta-information in a database, keyed by the message identifier;

encrypt the message identifier;

modify a resource locator of a hyperlink contained in the email to include the encrypted message identifier;

deliver the email to a recipient mailbox;

receive the message identifier from a web gateway;

determine a current reputation of the email from a reputation server; and

providing the current reputation of the email to the web gateway.

2. The program storage device of claim 1 , wherein the meta-information comprises:

a data signature;

header data of the email; and

envelope data of the email.

3. The program storage device of claim 1 , wherein the instructions for causing one or more processors to modify the resource locator comprise instructions for causing one or more processors to:

encode the message identifier into the resource locator.

4. The program storage device of claim 3 , wherein the instructions for causing one or more processors to encode the message identifier into the resource locator comprise instructions for causing one or more processors to:

encode additional information into the resource locator.

5. The program storage device of claim 1 , wherein the instructions for causing one or more processors to modify the resource locator comprise instructions for causing one or more processors to:

replace the resource locator with a different resource locator.

6. The program storage device of claim 1 , wherein the instructions for causing one or more processors to modify the resource locator comprise instructions for causing one or more processors to:

encode information regarding a context of the email into the resource locator.

7. A system for determining whether to allow traversal of a hyperlink embedded in an email, comprising:

a web gateway; and

an email gateway,

wherein the web gateway comprises:

a processor;

a storage device, coupled to the processor, on which is stored software comprising instructions for causing the processor to:

receive a request to make a connection to a location specified by a resource locator of a hyperlink embedded in an email;

determine an identity of the email based on the resource locator;

determine a current reputation of the email; and

determine a current reputation of the resource locator; and

perform an action responsive to a reputation of the resource locator and the email,

wherein the email gateway comprises:

a processor;

a storage device, coupled to the processor, on which is stored software comprising instructions for causing the processor to:

receive the email; and

modify the resource locator in the email to identify the email.

8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the software of the email gateway further comprises instructions for causing the processor to:

cache information corresponding to the email;

receive the request from the web gateway;

extract information about the email from the cached information based on information in the request;

obtain reputation information for the email; and

send the reputation information to the web gateway.

9. The system of claim 7 ,

wherein the software of the web gateway further comprises instructions for causing the processor to:

determine that the resource locator comprises information associated with a context of the email,

wherein the instructions for causing the processor to request reputation information comprise instructions for causing the processor to:

include the information associated with the context of the email in the request.

10. The system of claim 7 ,

wherein the software of the email gateway further comprises instructions for causing the processor to:

deliver the email containing the modified resource locator.

11. The system of claim 7 , wherein the instructions for causing the processor to modify the resource locator comprise instructions for causing the processor to:

generate a message identifier for the email; and

modify the email by encoding the message identifier into the resource locator in the email.

12. The system of claim 7 , wherein the software of the email gateway further comprises instructions for causing the processor to:

obtain an initial reputation of the email upon receipt of the email; and

perform an action responsive to the initial reputation.

13. The system of claim 7 , further comprising:

a redirection server, comprising:

a processor; and

a storage device, coupled to the processor, on which is stored software comprising instructions for causing the processor to:

receive information associating the modified resource locator with the resource locator in the email;

receive a connection corresponding to the resource locator;

request a reputation of the email and the resource locator in the email; and

redirect the connection to a destination specified in the resource locator in the email,

wherein the instructions for causing the processor to modify the resource locator comprise instructions for causing the processor to:

replace the resource locator in the email with a resource locator pointing to the redirection server.

14. A method for determining whether to allow traversal of a hyperlink embedded in an email, comprising:

receiving an email by an email gateway computer, comprising:

determining an initial reputation of the email by requesting a reputation of the email from a reputation server;

modifying a first resource locator of a hyperlink embedded in the email to identify the email; and

deliver the email to a mailbox of a recipient; and

receiving by the email gateway from a web gateway a request to traverse the first resource locator, comprising:

determining a current reputation of the first resource locator by requesting a current reputation of the first resource locator from the reputation server;

analyzing the first resource locator to identify the email in which the hyperlink was embedded;

determining a current reputation of the email by requesting a current reputation of the email from the reputation server; and

providing the current reputation of the first resource locator and the current reputation of the email to a web gateway for determining whether to allow traversal of the first resource locator.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein modifying a first resource locator comprises:

replacing the resource locator with a second resource locator; and

associating the first resource locator with the second resource locator.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein receiving a request to traverse the first resource locator further comprises:

receiving a request by a redirection service to traverse the second resource locator; and

determine the first resource locator associated with the second resource locator.

17. The method of claim 14 ,

wherein receiving an email further comprises:

storing meta-information about the email; and

associating the meta-information with a message identification data, and

wherein modifying a first resource locator comprises:

encoding the message identification data into the first resource locator.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein the meta-information comprises:

a data signature;

header data of the email; and

envelope data of the email.

19. The method of claim 14 , wherein modifying a first resource locator of a hyperlink embedded in the email to identify the email comprises:

encoding information regarding a context of the email into the resource locator.

20. The method of claim 14 , wherein modifying a first resource locator of a hyperlink embedded in the email to identify the email comprises:

replacing the resource locator with a difference resource locator.

Assignments (9)