Hash-based systems and methods for detecting and preventing transmission of unwanted e-mail

Abstract

A system (120) detects transmission of potentially unwanted e-mail messages. The system (120) may receive e-mail messages and generate hash values based on one or more portions of the e-mail messages. The system (120) may then determine whether the generated hash values match hash values associated with prior e-mail messages. The system (120) may determine that one of the e-mail messages is a potentially unwanted e-mail message when one or more of the generated hash values associated with the e-mail message match one or more of the hash values associated with the prior e-mail messages.

Description

[0001] This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. .sctn. 119 based on U.S. Provisional Application No. 60 / 407,975, filed Sep. 5, 2002, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. This application is also a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10 / 251,403, filed Sep. 20, 2002, which claims priority under 35 U.S.C. .sctn. 119 based on U.S. Provisional Application No. 60 / 341,462, filed Dec. 14, 2001, both of which are incorporated herein by reference. This application is also a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09 / 881,145, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09 / 881,074, both of which were filed on Jun. 14, 2001, and both of which claim priority under 35 U.S.C. .sctn. 119 based on U.S. Provisional Application No. 60 / 212,425, filed Jun. 19, 2000, all of which are incorporated herein by reference.[0002] 1. Field of the Invention[0003] The present invention relates generally to network security and, more particularly, to sys...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

Along with the rapid growth of the Internet have come problems arising from attacks from within the network and the shear volume of commercial e-mail.

As the size of the Internet continues to grow, so does the threat posed to users of the Internet.

Many of the problems take the form of e-mail.

Unsolicited commercial e-mail, or "spam," is another burdensome type of e-mail because it wastes both the time and resources of the e-mail recipient.

Both the anti-virus and the anti-spam techniques can demand significant processing of each message, adding to the resource burden imposed by unwanted email.

Images