Zone classification of electronic mail messages

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9838349-B2
Application number	US-71980110-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 8, 2010
Priority date	Mar 8, 2010
Publication date	Dec 5, 2017
Grant date	Dec 5, 2017

Abstract

Embodiments of the invention relate to techniques for classifying received e-mails and e-mails to be sent. In some embodiments, a set of e-mail zones may be defined and e-mails may be classified into one of the plurality of zones. An indication of the zone into which an e-mail has been classified may be displayed in a visual display of the e-mail.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
displaying an electronic mail (e-mail) message by an e-mail client application program executing on a computer, the displayed e-mail message to be sent from an e-mail address domain that is internal to an organization to a plurality of recipient e-mail addresses including:
a first recipient e-mail address which is external to the organization,
a second recipient e-mail address which is internal to the organization, and
a third recipient e-mail address which is external to the organization;

sending, by the e-mail client application program, the plurality of recipient e-mail addresses to an e-mail server of the organization, wherein the e-mail server of the organization is configured to determine:
the first recipient e-mail address which is external to the organization includes an e-mail address domain that has been listed by the organization as a trusted partner domain,
the second recipient e-mail address which is internal to the organization includes an e-mail address domain that is internal to the organization, and
the third recipient e-mail address which is external to the organization includes an e-mail address domain that has not been listed by the organization as a trusted partner domain and that has not been listed by the organization as a restricted domain;

receiving, by the e-mail client application program from the e-mail server of the organization, different e-mail zone classifications including:
a trusted partner zone for the first recipient e-mail address which is external to the organization,
an intra-organization zone for the second recipient e-mail address which is internal to the organization, and
a general internet zone for the third recipient e-mail address which is external to the organization;

adding, by the e-mail client application program, zone information indicating the different e-mail zone classifications into a header of the displayed e-mail message;
visually displaying, by the e-mail client application program, an indication of each different e-mail zone classification in the displayed e-mail message;
processing, by the e-mail client application program, the displayed e-mail message as multiple separate e-mail messages that are classified based on the zone information, the multiple separate e-mail messages including:
a first e-mail message which is addressed only to the first recipient e-mail address and which is classified into the trusted partner zone,
a second e-mail message which is addressed only to the second recipient e-mail address and which is classified into the inter-organization zone, and
a third e-mail message which is addressed only to the third recipient e-mail address and which is classified into the general internet zone;

accessing, by a policy engine of the e-mail client application program, policy information stored in memory of the computer;
determining, by the policy engine, policy actions specified by the policy information that are to be performed on the third e-mail message based on classification of the third e-mail message into the general internet zone, wherein the policy actions include at least scanning contents of the third e-mail message for confidential information and blocking the third e-mail message from being sent when confidential information is contained in the third e-mail message;
sending, by the e-mail client application program to the e-mail server of the organization, the first e-mail message without the policy actions being performed on the first e-mail message;
sending, by the e-mail client application program to the e-mail server of the organization, the second e-mail message without the policy actions being performed on the second e-mail message; and
performing, by the policy engine, the policy actions on the third e-mail message.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the indication comprises an icon for each different e-mail zone classification.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the indication comprises a text label for each different e-mail zone classification.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
sending, by the e-mail client application program to the e-mail server of the organization, the third e-mail message when the scanning indicates that no confidential information is contained in the third e-mail message.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the displayed e-mail message comprises an attachment, and
the policy actions include prompting a user of the e-mail client application program to verify that the attachment is to be sent to the third recipient e-mail address.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the policy actions include encrypting the third e-mail message when the scanning indicates that no confidential information is contained in the third e-mail message.

7. A computer-readable storage device storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform a method comprising:
displaying an electronic mail (e-mail) message by an e-mail client application, the displayed e-mail message to be sent from an e-mail address domain that is internal to an organization to a plurality of recipient e-mail addresses including:
a first recipient e-mail address which is external to the organization,
a second recipient e-mail address which is internal to the organization, and
a third recipient e-mail address which is external to the organization;

sending, by the e-mail client application program, the plurality of recipient e-mail addresses to an e-mail server of the organization, wherein the e-mail server of the organization is configured to determine:
the first recipient e-mail address which is external to the organization includes an e-mail address domain that has been listed by the organization as a trusted partner domain,
the second recipient e-mail address which is internal to the organization includes an e-mail address domain that is internal to the organization, and
the third recipient e-mail address which is external to the organization includes an e-mail address domain that has not been listed by the organization as a trusted partner domain and that has not been listed by the organization as a restricted domain;

receiving, by the e-mail client application program from the e-mail server of the organization, different e-mail zone classifications including:
a trusted partner zone for the first recipient e-mail address which is external to the organization,
an intra-organization zone for the second recipient e-mail address which is internal to the organization, and
a general internet zone for the third recipient e-mail address which is external to the organization;

adding, by the e-mail client application program, zone information indicating the different e-mail zone classifications into a header of the displayed e-mail message;
visually displaying, by the e-mail client application program, an indication of each different e-mail zone classification in the displayed e-mail message;
processing, by the e-mail client application program, the displayed e-mail message as multiple separate e-mail messages that are classified based on the zone information, the multiple separate e-mail messages including:
a first e-mail message which is addressed only to the first recipient e-mail address and which is classified into the trusted partner zone,
a second e-mail message which is addressed only to the second recipient e-mail address and which is classified into the inter-organization zone, and
a third e-mail message which is addressed only to the third recipient e-mail address and which is classified into the general internet zone;

accessing, by a policy engine of the e-mail client application program, policy information stored in memory of

Assignees

• Parthasarathy Krishna Kumar
• Panasyuk Anatoliy
• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Parthasarathy Krishna Kumar
• Panasyuk Anatoliy

Classifications

• H04L51/22

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L51/28 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L51/18

  Commands or executable codes · CPC title

• H04L51/12

  Electricity · mapped topic

• G06Q10/107 Primary

  Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing] · CPC title