Granted Patent B2

US 12,273,719 · App. 18/519,697 · Granted Apr 8, 2025

Inventor: Thomas Lee (Kensington, CA)

Assignee: Proofpoint, Inc.

H04W12/128H04M3/436H04W4/14

Abstract

Claims (67)

1. A message security system comprising:

one or more processors;

a communication interface; and

memory storing computer-readable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the message security system to:

receive, via the communication interface, one or more character-limited messages sent to a user device;

detect a uniform resource locator (URL) within the one or more character-limited messages for replacement;

generate a shortened URL corresponding to the detected URL, wherein generating the shortened URL includes:

generating a random token based on a maximum number of characters that can be transmitted in a single character-limited message, wherein a length of the random token is selected based on a number of available unused characters in at least one of the one or more character-limited messages; and

generating the shortened URL comprising a domain of the shortened URL and the generated random token;

modify the one or more character-limited messages by replacing the URL with the shortened URL;

cause transmission of the modified one or more character-limited messages to the user device;

receive, via the communication interface, from the user device, a request to access the shortened URL; and

redirect the user device to the detected URL corresponding to the shortened URL.

2. The message security system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more character-limited messages comprise at least one of short message service (SMS) messages and multimedia messaging service (MMS) messages.

3. The message security system of claim 1 , wherein the detection of the URL for replacement comprises:

detecting a URL within the one or more character-limited messages; and

identifying that the URL is not trusted,

wherein replacing the URL with the shortened URL comprises replacing the URL in response to identifying that the URL is not trusted.

4. The message security system of claim 1 , wherein the generating the shortened URL further comprises:

assigning an expiration to the shortened URL; and

storing an association between the shortened URL and the URL until at least the expiration.

5. The message security system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more character-limited messages comprise multiple character-limited messages, and wherein the modifying the one or more character-limited messages further comprises combining non-URL content of the multiple character-limited messages into a single character-limited message comprising the non-URL content and the shortened URL.

6. The message security system of claim 1 , wherein the modifying the one or more character-limited messages further comprises re-arranging non-URL content of the one or more character-limited messages.

7. The message security system of claim 6 , wherein the re-arranging of the non-URL content is based on the maximum number of characters that can be transmitted in a single character-limited message.

8. The message security system of claim 1 , wherein the modifying the one or more character-limited messages further comprises adding content describing the shortened URL to the one or more character-limited messages.

9. The message security system of claim 8 , wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the message security system to generate the added content based on a maximum number of characters that can be transmitted in a single character-limited message.

10. The message security system of claim 1 , wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the message security system to:

after the detecting the URL for replacement, transmit an instruction, to a messaging service center, that causes the messaging service center to drop the one or more character-limited messages,

wherein the causing of transmission comprises transmitting, to the messaging service center, the modified one or more character-limited messages for transmission to the user device.

11. The message security system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more character-limited messages are received from a first messaging service center, wherein the causing of transmission comprises transmitting the modified one or more character-limited messages to a second messaging service center.

12. The message security system of claim 1 , wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the message security system to:

prior to the redirecting the user device to the detected URL, scan content hosted at the detected URL for malicious content; and

after detecting that the content hosted at the detected URL does not contain malicious content, redirect the user device to the detected URL.

13. The message security system of claim 1 , wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the message security system to:

detect a potentially malicious phone number in the one or more character-limited messages;

replace the potentially malicious phone number with a phone number assigned to the message security system;

receive a call on the phone number assigned to the message security system; and

redirect the call to the potentially malicious phone number.

14. The message security system of claim 13 , wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the message security system to:

prior to the redirecting the call, inform a caller that the detected potentially malicious phone number is a potentially malicious phone number.

15. A method comprising:

at a message security system comprising one or more processors, a communication interface, and memory storing computer-readable instructions:

receiving, via the communication interface, one or more character-limited messages sent to a user device;

detecting a uniform resource locator (URL) within the one or more character-limited messages for replacement;

generating a shortened URL corresponding to the detected URL, wherein generating the shortened URL includes:

generating a random token based on a maximum number of characters that can be transmitted in a single character-limited message, wherein a length of the random token is selected based on a number of available unused characters in at least one of the one or more character-limited messages; and

generating the shortened URL comprising a domain of the shortened URL and the generated random token;

modifying the one or more character-limited messages by replacing the URL with the shortened URL;

causing transmission of the modified one or more character-limited messages to the user device;

receiving, via the communication interface, from the user device, a request to access the shortened URL; and

redirecting the user device to the detected URL corresponding to the shortened URL.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the one or more character-limited messages comprise at least one of short message service (SMS) messages and multimedia messaging service (MMS) messages.

17. The method of claim 15 , wherein the one or more character-limited messages comprise multiple character-limited messages, and wherein the modifying the one or more character-limited messages further comprises combining non-URL content of the multiple character-limited messages into a single character-limited message comprising the non-URL content and the shortened URL.

18. The method of claim 15 , wherein the modifying the one or more character-limited messages further comprises re-arranging non-URL content of the one or more character-limited messages.

19. The method of claim 15 , further including:

prior to the redirecting the user device to the detected URL, scanning content hosted at the detected URL for malicious content; and

after detecting that the content hosted at the detected URL does not contain malicious content, redirecting the user device to the detected URL.

20. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media comprising instructions that, when executed by an apparatus comprising one or more processors and a communication interface, cause the apparatus to:

receive, via the communication interface, one or more character-limited messages sent to a user device;

detect a uniform resource locator (URL) within the one or more character-limited messages for replacement;

generate a shortened URL corresponding to the detected URL, wherein generating the shortened URL includes:

generating a random token based on a maximum number of characters that can be transmitted in a single character-limited message, wherein a length of the random token is selected based on a number of available unused characters in at least one of the one or more character-limited messages; and

generating the shortened URL comprising a domain of the shortened URL and the generated random token;

modify the one or more character-limited messages by replacing the URL with the shortened URL;

cause transmission of the modified one or more character-limited messages to the user device;

receive, via the communication interface, from the user device, a request to access the shortened URL; and

redirect the user device to the detected URL corresponding to the shortened URL.

Assignments (3)

Continuity (3)

References Cited (17)