Email Sender and Reply-To Authentication to Prevent Interception of Email Replies

Abstract

An electronic messaging system that reviews content of inbound messages, verifies elements of header fields, and initiates an action if Name (N) and Address (A) of From (F) and Reply-To (R) elements of header fields match or do not match, those elements being NF=NR and AF≠AR, to protect recipients against inadvertent routing of their reply email to an imposter of the named From sender, thereby mitigating risk of recipients falling prey to what is referred to herein as “Reply-To Whaling” attacks, within the email security category of anti-phishing.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application claims the benefit of priority to the earlier filed U.S. Provisional Application No. 62 / 313,672, filed on Mar. 25, 2016, entitled “EMAIL SENDER AND REPLY-TO AUTHENTICATION”, and U.S. Provisional Application No. 62 / 317,263, filed on Apr. 1, 2016, entitled “EMAIL SENDER AND REPLY-TO AUTHENTICATION TO PREVENT INTERCEPTION OF EMAIL REPLIES”, which are incorporated reference herein in their entireties.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]This invention relates to electronic messaging security within the category of anti-phishing, and the sub-category of anti-whaling, in terms of protecting the recipient of an electronic message from inadvertent routing of a reply message to an imposter of the named sender, using the invention's automated sender authentication and alert system.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]Mail assumed electronic format in 1965 and was given the name “Email”. Email started as a way for multiple users of a time-sharin...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The present invention is an electronic messaging system that can review and verify the content of inbound and outbound email messages. The system can detect if the elements of the header fields match or do not match, and can initiate an alert message or take other appropriate actions, such as moving the message to a different folder or sending an alert to both the email address in the To and From fields. The invention can also review and verify the content of inbound message headers after the recipient clicks the REPLY button or the REPLY-ALL button. The technical effects of the invention include improved email message management and verification, as well as improved security and efficiency in email communication.

Problems solved by technology

Phishing is a continual threat, and the risk is even larger in social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.

Due to their focused nature, whaling attacks are often harder to detect than standard phishing attacks.

However, such training is often ineffective in reducing the occurrence of personal data due to a carefully constructed whaling attack.

Fraudulent transfers have been reported going to 72 countries; however, the majority of the transfers go to Asian banks located within China and Hong Kong.

In these schemes, the victim clicks on the link, causing it to download malware to the victim's computer, allowing the actor(s) unfettered access to the victim's data, including passwords or financial account information.

However, there are no solutions described that mitigate the particular type of whaling attack from which the various embodiments of the present invention protects.

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