Method and system for journaling electronic messages

1. A method for journaling of e-mail messages, comprising:

receiving a copy of a first e-mail message sent from or received on a mail server, wherein the first e-mail message contains metadata and content data and wherein the metadata of the first e-mail message contains a message-ID stored as an independent field in the metadata of the first e-mail message distinct from a subject of the first e-mail message and e-mail addresses for the first e-mail message that specify senders and recipients of the first e-mail message, wherein the message-ID identifies the first e-mail message as a particular e-mail message;

recording the copy of the first e-mail message by a relocation service running on a journal server remote from the mail server, wherein the relocation service performs a method of recording comprising:

determining whether a second e-mail message having said message-ID in the metadata of said second e-mail message has already been recorded;

if the second e-mail message having said message-ID has already been recorded in a database of e-mail messages, adding the metadata for the first e-mail message to a set of metadata linked to content data of the second e-mail message in the database but not recording any of the content data of the first e-mail message;

if no second e-mail having said message-ID has been recorded:

generating a first entry for the first e-mail message in the database;

determining a first e-mail message verification value based on the content data of the first e-mail message;

storing said first e-mail message verification value and the metadata of the first e-mail message in said first entry; and

recording the entire content data of the first e-mail message in the database separate from content data of other e-mail messages and linking the content data of the first e-mail message to the first entry.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the relocation service further performs the steps of:

determining the first e-mail message verification value based on attributes of the first e-mail message when for the message-ID second e-mail message has already been recorded;

determining whether the first e-mail message verification value is identical with a second e-mail message verification value of the already recorded second e-mail message having the same message-ID;

performing the step of adding the metadata for the first e-mail message to a set of metadata linked to content data of the second e-mail message but not recording the content data of the first e-mail message when the first and second e-mail message verification values are identical by updating a second entry of the second e-mail message with the metadata of the first e-mail message; and

storing said first e-mail message verification value and the metadata of the first e-mail message in said first entry and recording the content data of the first e-mail message with a link to the first entry when the first and second e-mail message verification values are not identical.

3. The method according to claim 2 , further comprising:

identifying the first e-mail message as an e-mail message with a falsified message-ID when the message-ID of the first and second e-mail messages are identical but the first and second e-mail message verification values are not identical; and

sending a warning to the relocation service.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the e-mail message verification value contains at least one checksum of content data of the e-mail message.

5. The method according to claim 4 , wherein the checksum is calculated from the contents of subject, body and possible attachments of the e-mail message.

6. The method according to claim 4 , wherein the checksum is calculated from at least one technical attribute of the e-mail message which is unambiguous for the e-mail message.

7. The method according to claim 6 , wherein one of the technical attributes is the sending time of the e-mail message.

8. The method according to claim 4 , wherein the checksum is a unique hash value of the subject, body, attachment and/or technical attribute of the e-mail message.

9. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the metadata comprises recipient information and/or technical attributes of the e-mail message.

10. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:

providing an e-mail message identification table containing the message-ID for each recorded e-mail message.

11. The method according to claim 10 , wherein in the e-mail message identification stable further contains the e-mail message verification value and a reference to the entry for each recorded e-mail message.

12. The method according to claim 11 , further comprising:

storing said e-mail message identification table on the database;

storing said entry by an attribute service and/or the database;

storing said e-mail message by an archive service; and

wherein in the e-mail message identification table for each recorded e-mail message a data record containing the message-ID, e-mail message verification value, reference to the entry on the attribute service and reference to the e-mail message on the archive service is stored.

13. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:

requesting a journaled e-mail message from a user client;

identifying a recorded e-mail message as the requested e-mail message by comparing metadata of the requested e-mail message with metadata recorded by the relocation service;

retrieving the identified e-mail message;

reconstructing the retrieved e-mail message with its metadata and possible attachments; and

providing the reconstructed e-mail message to the user client.

14. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:

providing a journal of recorded e-mail messages containing a list of entries generated by the relocation service.

15. The method of claim 1 , further comprising storing entries for recorded e-mails in a relational database indexed by e-mail message-ID numbers.

16. A computer program product comprising a physical computer readable storage medium containing computer executable program code for journaling of e-mail messages containing metadata and content data, and wherein the computer program is executable by a processor, the computer executable code comprising code executable to:

determine a message-ID for a first e-mail message from an independent field in the metadata of the first e-mail message distinct from a subject of the first e-mail message and e-mail addresses for the first e-mail message that specify senders and recipients of the first e-mail, wherein the message-ID identifies the first e-mail message as a particular e-mail message;

determine whether a second e-mail message having said message-ID in the metadata of said second e-mail message has already been recorded in a database;

add only metadata of the first e-mail message to the metadata of the second e-mail message such that the metadata of the first e-mail message is linked to content data of the second e-mail message if the second e-mail message has already been recorded in the database;

generate a first entry for the first e-mail message when no second e-mail message having said message-ID has been recorded;

determine a first e-mail message verification value based on the content data first e-mail message;

store said first e-mail message verification value and the metadata of the first e-mail message in said first entry; and

record the content data of the first e-mail message in the database separate from content data of other e-mail messages and link the content data of the first e-mail message to the first entry.

17. A system for journaling of e-mail messages, comprising:

a journaling system comprising one or more physical servers, the one or more physical servers coupled to one or more mail servers by a network, the journaling system providing a relocation service and configured to;

receive a copy of a first e-mail message over the network containing metadata and content data sent from or received on an e-mail server, wherein the metadata of the first e-mail message contains a message-ID stored as an independent field in the metadata of the first e-mail message distinct from a subject of the first e-mail message and e-mail addresses for the first e-mail message that specify senders and recipients of the first e-mail message, wherein the message-ID identifies the first e-mail message as a particular e-mail message;

determine whether a second e-mail message having said message-ID in the metadata of the second e-mail message has already been recorded in a database;

if the second e-mail message having said message-ID has already been recorded, add only metadata of the first e-mail message to the metadata of the second e-mail message in an entry for the second e-mail message in the database;

if no second e-mail message having said message-ID has been recorded:

generate a first entry for the first e-mail message,

determine a first e-mail message verification value based on the content data of the first e-mail message, and

store said first e-mail message verification value and the metadata of the first e-mail message in said first entry, and record the content data of the first e-mail message in the database separate from the content data of other e-mail messages with a link to the first entry.

18. The system according to claim 17 , wherein said relocation service is further configured to:

determine the first e-mail message verification value based on attributes of the first e-mail message when for the message-ID the second e-mail message has already been recorded;

determine whether the first e-mail message verification value is identical with a second e-mail message verification value of the already recorded second e-mail message having the same message-ID;

perform the step of adding only metadata of the first e-mail message to the metadata of the second e-mail message in the entry for the second e-mail message when the first and second e-mail verification values are identical by updating the entry of the second e-mail message with the metadata of the first e-mail message, and

to store said first e-mail message verification value and the metadata of the first e-mail message in said first entry, and to record the first e-mail message with a link to the first entry when the first and second e-mail message verification values are not identical.

19. The system according to claim 18 , wherein the system further comprises an administration service and the relocation service is further configured to identify the first e-mail message as an e-mail message with a falsified identification when the message-ID of the first and second e-mail messages are identical but the first and second e-mail message verification values are not identical, and to send a warning to the administration service.

20. The system according to claim 18 , wherein, the first e-mail message verification value contains at least one checksum of the content of the first e-mail message, and the relocation service is configured to calculate the checksum from the contents of subject, body and possible attachments of the first e-mail message.

21. The system according to claim 20 , wherein the relocation service is further adapted to calculate the checksum from at least one technical attribute of the first e-mail message uniquely defining the first e-mail message.

22. The system according to claim 20 , wherein the relocation service is further configured to calculate the checksum as a unique hash value of the subject, body, attachment and/or technical attribute of the first e-mail message.

23. The system according to claim 17 , further comprising:

an e-mail message identification table configured to contain the message-ID for each recorded e-mail message.

24. The system according to claim 23 , wherein the e-mail message identification table is further configured to contain the e-mail message verification value and a reference to the entry for each recorded e-mail message.

25. The system according to claim 23 , wherein the journaling system further comprises an archive server further comprising:

an attribute service running on the one or more servers which is configured to store said entry containing the metadata, wherein the metadata comprises recipient information of the first e-mail message;

an archive service running on the one or more servers which is configured to store e-mail messages in the database; and

wherein the e-mail message identification table is configured to store for each recorded e-mail message a data record containing identification, e-mail message verification value, reference to the entry on the attribute service and reference to the e-mail message on the archive service.

26. The system according to claim 25 , wherein the relocation service or the attribute service is further configured to provide on request a journal of recorded e-mail messages containing a list of entries generated be the relocation service.

27. The system according to claim 25 , further comprising a journal server configured to receive the copy of the first e-mail message sent from the mail server, and wherein the relocation service is configured to receive the copy of the first e-mail message sent from or received on the journal server; and the relocation service is further configured to remove the first e-mail message from the journal server after the first e-mail message or only metadata of the first e-mail message is recorded in the database.

28. The system according to claim 17 , wherein the relocation service is further configured to reconstruct a journaled e-mail message requested from a user client, in which the relocation service is configured to identify a recorded e-mail message as the requested e-mail message by comparing metadata of the requested e-mail message with metadata recorded by the relocation service, to retrieve the identified e-mail message, to reconstruct the retrieved e-mail message with its metadata and possible attachments, and to provide the reconstructed e-mail message to the user client.

29. A system for journaling of e-mail messages, comprising:

a mail server;

a journaling system coupled to the mail server, the journaling system comprising a processor, a network interface, a non-transitory memory and a database, the memory storing computer code executable by the processor, the journaling system configured to:

receive a copy of a first e-mail message over a network from the mail server, the first e-mail containing metadata and content data, wherein the metadata of the first e-mail message contains a message-ID stored as an independent field in the metadata of the first e-mail message distinct from a subject of the first e-mail message and e-mail addresses for the first e-mail message that specify senders and recipients of the first e-mail message, wherein the message-ID identifies the first e-mail message as a particular e-mail message;

determine at the journaling system whether a second e-mail message having said message-ID in the metadata of the second e-mail message has already been recorded in the database;

if the second e-mail message having said message-ID has already been recorded, add at the journaling system only metadata of the first e-mail message to the metadata of the second e-mail message in an entry for the second e-mail message;

if no second e-mail message having said message-ID has been recorded:

generate at the journaling system a first entry for the first e-mail message,

determine at the journaling system a first e-mail message verification value based on the content data of the first e-mail message, and

store at the journaling system said first e-mail message verification value and the metadata of the first e-mail message in said first entry, and record the content data of the first e-mail message in the database separate from the content data of other e-mail messages with a link to the first entry.

30. The system according to claim 29 , wherein the mail server is configured to send copies of e-mail messages sent to or received at the mail server to the journaling system.

31. The system according to claim 30 , wherein the journaling system comprises a plurality of servers coupled to the mail server via the network.

32. The system of claim 31 , wherein the journaling system comprises:

a journal server configured to receive emails from the mail server;

an archive server coupled to the journal server configured to determine that the journal has a new e-mail message to journal and to process the new e-mail message as the first e-mail message.

33. The system according to claim 29 , wherein the journaling system is further configured to:

determine the first e-mail message verification value based on attributes of the first e-mail message when for the message-ID of first e-mail message has already been recorded;

determine whether the first e-mail message verification value is identical with a second e-mail message verification value of the already recorded second e-mail message having the same message-ID;

perform the step of adding only metadata of the first e-mail message to the metadata of the second e-mail message in the entry for the second e-mail message when the first and second e-mail verification values are identical by updating the entry of the second e-mail message with the metadata of the first e-mail message, and

store said first e-mail message verification value and the metadata of the first e-mail message in said first entry, and to record the first e-mail message with a link to the first entry when the first and second e-mail message verification values are not identical.

34. The system according to claim 33 , wherein the journaling system is further configured to provide an administration service and a relocation service, wherein the relocation service is further configured to identify the first e-mail message as e-mail message with a falsified identification when the message-ID of the first and second e-mail messages are identical but the first and second e-mail message verification values are not identical, and to send a warning to the administration service.

35. The system according to claim 34 , wherein, the first e-mail message verification value contains at least one checksum of the content of the first e-mail message, and the relocation service is configured to calculate the checksum from the contents of subject, body and possible attachments of the e-mail message.

36. The system according to claim 35 , wherein the relocation service is further adapted to calculate the checksum from at least one technical attribute of the e-mail message uniquely defining the e-mail message.

37. The system according to claim 35 , wherein the relocation service is further configured to calculate the checksum as a unique hash value of the subject, body, attachment and/or technical attribute of the e-mail message.

38. The system according to claim 29 , wherein the journaling system is further configured to reconstruct a journaled e-mail message requested from a user client, in which the journaling system is configured to identify a recorded e-mail message as the requested e-mail message by comparing metadata of the requested e-mail message with metadata recorded by the journaling system, to retrieve the identified e-mail message, to reconstruct the retrieved e-mail message with its metadata and possible attachments, and to provide the reconstructed e-mail message to the user client.