Systems and methods for protecting header fields in a message

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9350689-B2
Application number	US-201313923475-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 21, 2013
Priority date	Feb 27, 2009
Publication date	May 24, 2016
Grant date	May 24, 2016

Abstract

Embodiments of the systems and methods described herein facilitate the transmitting, receiving, and processing of encoded messages wherein the header fields in the message header are protected. In one embodiment, the contents of the header fields to be protected are inserted into the message body as one or more additional lines of text, for example, prior to encoding and transmitting the message to a message recipient. Upon receipt of the message, the message recipient processes the encoded message such that the contents of the protected header fields can be extracted from the message body. Accordingly, by inserting the contents of the header fields to be protected into the message body, the header fields may be protected using existing standards and protocols for facilitating secure message communication.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method of transmitting an encoded message from a computing device to a message recipient device, the message comprising a message header and a message body, the message header comprising a plurality of header fields, the method comprising:
the computing device inserting original content of one or more header fields to be protected into the message body prior to transmission of the message to the message recipient device;
modifying the one or more header fields to be protected to include, instead of the original content, one or more respective text notices that indicate that the original content is protected, thereby generating a modified message header;
encoding the message body which includes the original content of the one or more header fields to be protected; and
after encoding the message body, transmitting the message comprising the modified message header and the encoded message body to the message recipient device, such that when the message is received and processed by the message recipient device, the processing including decoding of the encoded message body, the original content of the one or more header fields to be protected is extracted from the decoded message body and inserted back into the one or more header fields of the message header, and when the message is displayed in a user interface of the message recipient device, the user interface is displayed with indicia indicating that the one or more header fields to be protected in the message header have been protected.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining, prior to inserting the original content into the message body, which of the plurality of header fields are to be protected.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the determining is performed based on a configuration setting.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein, the configuration setting is provided in an information technology (IT) policy.

5. The method of claim 2 , wherein the determining comprises receiving input, via a user interface of the computing device, that identifies the one or more header fields to be protected of the plurality of header fields.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the message is composed at the computing device, and the input is received prior to composition of the message.

7. The method of claim 5 , wherein the input is received upon installation of an application at the computing device that is configured for transmitting the message.

8. The method of claim 5 , wherein the input is received upon a powering on of the computing device.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the computing device comprises a mobile device.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more header fields to be protected comprises a subject field.

11. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions, which when executed by a processor, cause the processor to transmit an encoded message from a computing device to a message recipient device, the message comprising a message header and a message body, the message header comprising a plurality of header fields, and cause the processor to:
insert original content of one or more header fields to be protected into the message body prior to transmission of the message to the message recipient device;
modify the one or more header fields to be protected to include, instead of the original content, one or more respective text notices that indicate that the original content is protected, thereby generating a modified message header;
encode the message body which includes the original content of the one or more header fields to be protected; and
after encoding the message body, transmit the message comprising the modified message header and the encoded message body to the message recipient device, such that when the message is received and processed by the message recipient device, the processing including decoding of the encoded message body, the original content of the one or more header fields to be protected is extracted from the decoded message body and inserted back into the one or more header fields of the message header, and when the message is displayed in a user interface of the message recipient device, the user interface is displayed with indicia indicating that the one or more header fields to be protected in the message header have been protected.

12. A computing device comprising a processor and a memory storing instructions for transmitting an encoded message from the computing device to a message recipient device, the message comprising a message header and a message body, the message header comprising a plurality of header fields, wherein when the instructions are executed by the processor, the processor is configured to:
insert original content of one or more header fields to be protected into the message body prior to transmission of the message to the message recipient device;
modify the one or more header fields to be protected to include, instead of the original content, one or more respective text notices that indicate that the original content is protected, thereby generating a modified message header;
encode the message body which includes the original content of the one or more header fields to be protected; and
after encoding the message body, transmit the message comprising the modified message header and the encoded message body to the message recipient device, such that when the message is received and processed by the message recipient device, the processing including decoding of the encoded message body, the original content of the one or more header fields to be protected is extracted from the decoded message body and inserted back into the one or more header fields of the message header, and when the message is displayed in a user interface of the message recipient device, the user interface is displayed with indicia indicating that the one or more header fields to be protected in the message header have been protected.

13. The computing device of claim 12 , wherein the processor is further configured to:
determine, prior to inserting the original content into the message body, which of the plurality of header fields are to be protected.

14. The computing device of claim 13 , wherein the determining is performed based on a configuration setting.

15. The computing device of claim 14 , wherein, the configuration setting is provided in an information technology (IT) policy.

16. The computing device of claim 13 , wherein to determine which of the plurality of header fields are to be protected, the processor is further configured to receive input, via a user interface of the computing device, that identifies the one or more header fields to be protected of the plurality of header fields.

17. The computing device of claim 16 , wherein the message is composed at the computing device, and the input is received prior to composition of the message.

18. The computing device of claim 16 , wherein the input is received upon installation of an application at the computing device that is configured for transmitting the message.

19. The computing device of claim 16 , wherein the input is received upon a powering on of the computing device.

20. The computing device of claim 12 , wherein the computing device comprises a mobile device.

21. The computing device of claim 12 , wherein the one or more header fields to be protected comprises a subject field.

Assignees

• Blackberry Ltd

Inventors

• Little Herbert Anthony
• Adams Neil Patrick
• Brown Michael Stephen

Classifications

• H04L51/04 Primary

  Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM] · CPC title

• H04L63/20 Primary

  for managing network security; network security policies in general (filtering policies H04L63/0227) · CPC title

• H04L12/58

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L63/123

  received data contents, e.g. message integrity · CPC title

• H04L63/0823

  using certificates (cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication involving certificates H04L9/3263) · CPC title