Email Authentication via Trusted Source Records Database
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Solution Overview
Problem
The increasing complexity of social engineering tactics, particularly through email, makes it difficult for organizations to distinguish between legitimate and fraudulent requests for information, leading to potential data breaches.
Innovation Solution
A system that monitors email communications by creating and updating a trusted source records database to authenticate sender and recipient email IDs, using a network monitor to flag, delete, or reroute suspicious emails, and providing users with information to make informed decisions about sensitive data requests.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional email filtering methods are used, then basic spam detection is achieved, but social engineering emails are not effectively identified
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an address book database as an intermediary component that stores trusted email addresses and their relationships. This database acts as a mediator between incoming emails and the authentication process, enabling the system to verify sender legitimacy by checking against stored trusted addresses and identifying social engineering attempts through comparison, thereby improving reliability without requiring overly complex analysis algorithms
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary actions by pre-populating the address book database with trusted email addresses and their relationships before actual email authentication occurs. This advance preparation allows the authentication process to simply compare incoming emails against pre-established trust relationships, improving detection accuracy while keeping the real-time processing relatively simple
2Measurement precision
If comprehensive email monitoring is implemented, then social engineering detection is improved, but processing time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the email authentication process into distinct components: extracting sender and recipient addresses, querying the address book database for trusted relationships, and making authentication decisions. This segmentation allows each component to operate independently and efficiently, improving measurement precision through thorough checking while reducing overall processing time by avoiding redundant operations in each segment
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates simplified copies of email addresses and their trust relationships in the address book database. Instead of analyzing entire email content and metadata for authentication, the system works with copied address information that can be quickly compared and matched, thereby improving identification accuracy through comprehensive data while minimizing processing time through efficient data representation
3Reliability
If detailed sender verification is performed, then phishing detection is enhanced, but user convenience is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements self-service by automatically performing detailed sender verification without requiring user intervention. The address book database automatically queries and compares sender addresses against trusted relationships, and the system autonomously identifies potential phishing attempts. This automation enhances phishing detection reliability while maintaining user convenience, as users receive emails with authentication results already determined without needing to manually verify sender legitimacy
Data Source
AI summary
A method in one example implementation includes providing a memory component with one or more alternative email entries associated with a plurality of name records. The name records represent one or more authorized users of a network. The method further includes determining whether any of the one or more alternative email entries corresponds to a sender email address in an incoming email message, where the incoming email message is being sent from the sender email address to at least one official email address associated with the network. In more specific embodiments the method includes tagging the incoming email message with a first or second flag depending on whether any of the one or more alternative email entries corresponds to the sender email address and whether a username of the sender email address includes an identifiable portion of one of the plurality of name records.