System, method and apparatus for optimizing wireless communications of secure e-mail messages with attachments

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9584451-B2
Application number	US-201213454218-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 24, 2012
Priority date	Apr 24, 2012
Publication date	Feb 28, 2017
Grant date	Feb 28, 2017

Abstract

A system, method and apparatus are provided for secure e-mail message attachment optimization. Content attached to e-mail messages may not be suited to the resource constraints of the destination wireless device. In secure e-mail messages, the message may be signed and/or encrypted. A wireless server can determine resource parameters associated with a destination wireless device, such as display resolution, memory capacity, processor speed, and wireless interface constraints and re-scale the attached content to be optimized for delivery and presentation on the wireless device.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A server that processes e-mail messages for delivery to wireless devices, the server comprising:
a processing device for executing instructions; and
a memory device for storing instructions, which when executed by the processor unit configure the server to:
receive from a sender a secure e-mail message directed to a recipient the secure e-mail message including at least one or more encrypted components that are encrypted with an encryption scheme between the sender and the recipient;
determine whether the encrypted components include image attachments to be re-scaled;
if the encrypted components include image attachments to be re-scaled, verify a signature of the sender by retrieving a sender certificate;
forward a portion of the secure e-mail message to the recipient when decryption keys for the encryption scheme is unavailable to the server;
receive from a wireless device of the recipient, a request to re-scale the image attachments, and the request including a session key extracted from the forwarded secure e-mail message;
decrypt the at least the one or more encrypted components of the secure e-mail message using the session key received from the recipient wireless device;
determine whether the image attachments may be re-scaled based on a resource parameter which specifies one or more constraints of the wireless device;
re-scale in response to the determining the image attachments to accommodate the one or more constraints of the wireless device;
re-encrypt the re-scaled image attachments:
marking the secure e-mail to indicate the re-encrypted re-scaled image attachments being modified and verified by the server; and
send the re-encrypted re-scaled image attachments and the marked secure e-mail to the wireless device.

2. The server of claim 1 wherein the mark is generated prior to sending the re-scaled image attachment in the e-mail message to the wireless device.

3. The server of claim 2 , wherein the marking is embedded in the header of the modified e-mail message.

4. The server of claim 2 wherein the executed instructions configuring the server to send the re-scaled image attachment further configure the server to encrypt the re-scaled image attachment prior to sending it to the device.

5. The server of claim 1 , wherein the resource parameter is selected from one or more resources of the wireless device selected from the group consisting of: a display resolution of the wireless device, a memory capacity of the wireless device, a wireless interface speed of the wireless device, and a processor speed of the wireless device.

6. The server of claim 1 , wherein the resource parameter of the wireless device is determined from configuration data associated with the wireless device stored at the server or retrieved by the server.

7. The server of claim 1 , wherein the secure e-mail message has an S/MIME signature and/or S/MIME encryption.

8. The server of claim 1 , wherein the instructions when executed by the processor unit further configure the server to:
store the image attachment prior to re-scaling;
receive a request from the wireless device for the image attachment; and send the image attachment to the wireless device.

9. A method configured to execute on a server, the method comprising:
receiving from a sender a secure e-mail message directed to a recipient the secure e-mail message including at least one or more encrypted components that are encrypted with an encryption scheme between the sender and the recipient;
determining whether the encrypted components include image attachments to be re-scaled;
if the encrypted components include image attachments to be re-scaled, verifying a signature of the sender by retrieving a sender certificate;
forwarding a portion of the secure e-mail message to the recipient when decryption keys for the encryption scheme is unavailable to the server;
receiving from a wireless device of the recipient, a request to re-scale the image attachments, and the request including a session key extracted from the forwarded secure e-mail message;
decrypting the at least the one or more encrypted components of the secure e-mail message using the session key received from the recipient wireless device;
determining whether the image attachments may be re-scaled based on a resource parameter which specifies one or more constraints of the wireless device;
re-scaling in response to the determining image attachments to accommodate the one or more constraints of the wireless device;
re-encrypting the re-scaled image attachments;
marking the secure e-mail to indicate the re-encrypted re-scaled image attachments being modified and verified by the server; and
sending the re-encrypted optimized one or more components re-scaled image attachment and the marked secure e-mail to the wireless device.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the mark is generated prior to sending the re-scaled image attachment in the e-mail message to the wireless device.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the marking is embedded in the header of the modified e-mail message.

12. The method of claim 10 wherein sending the rescaled image attachment further encrypts the re-scaled image attachment prior to sending it to the device.

13. The method of claim 9 , wherein the resource parameter is selected from one or more resources of the wireless device selected from the group consisting of: a display resolution of the wireless device, a memory capacity of the wireless device, a wireless interface speed of the wireless device, and a processor speed of the wireless device.

14. The method of claim 9 , wherein the resource parameter of the wireless device is determined from configuration data associated with the wireless device stored at the server or retrieved by the server.

15. The method of claim 9 , wherein the secure e-mail message has an S/MIME signature and/or S/MIME encryption.

16. The method of claim 9 , further comprising: storing the image attachment prior to re-scaling;
receiving a request from the wireless device for the image attachment; and
sending the image attachment to the wireless device.

17. A non-transitory computer readable memory containing instructions for e-mail message optimization, the instructions which when executed by a processor perform the method comprising:
receiving from a sender a secure e-mail message directed to a recipient, the secure e-mail message including at least one or more encrypted components that are encrypted with an encryption scheme between the sender and the recipient;
determining whether the encrypted components include image attachments to be re-scaled;
if the encrypted components include image attachments to be re-scaled, verifying a signature of the sender by retrieving a sender certificate;
forwarding a portion of the secure e-mail message to the recipient when decryption keys for the encryption scheme is unavailable to the server;
receiving from a wireless device of the recipient, a request to re-scale the image attachments, and the request including a session key extracted from the forwarded secure e-mail message;
decrypting the at least the one or more encrypted components of the secure e-mail message using the session key received from the recipient wireless device;
determining whether the image attachments may be re-scaled based on a resource parameter which specifies one or more constraints of the wireless device;
re-scaling in response to the determining the image attachments to accommodate the one or more constraints of the wireless device;
re-encrypting t

Assignees

• Adams Neil Patrick
• Singh Ravi
• Blackberry Ltd

Inventors

• Adams Neil Patrick
• Singh Ravi

Classifications

• H04L63/126

  the source of the received data · CPC title

• H04W12/02

  Protecting privacy or anonymity, e.g. protecting personally identifiable information [PII] · CPC title

• H04W12/10

  Integrity · CPC title

• H04L63/0442

  wherein the sending and receiving network entities apply asymmetric encryption, i.e. different keys for encryption and decryption (cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for public-key encryption H04L9/30) · CPC title

• H04L51/066

  Format adaptation, e.g. format conversion or compression · CPC title