Email Authenticity Verification via Blockchain Data Fingerprinting
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing email communication systems are vulnerable to counterfeiting and tampering, as malicious actors can intercept and alter email content, leading to potential fraud and information theft.
Innovation Solution
A method and system for confirming email authenticity through an attestation procedure at the sender point, where a data fingerprint is produced based on email content, inserted into the email, and stored, and an authenticity verification procedure at the receiver point, which checks the fingerprint to ensure the email has not been tampered with by comparing it with stored content.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional email transmission is used without attestation, then communication speed is fast and process is simple, but email authenticity cannot be guaranteed and tampering cannot be detected
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary attestation actions by generating a data fingerprint of the email content and storing it in a blockchain system before the email is transmitted. This advance preparation enables subsequent verification without adding complexity to the actual transmission process, resolving the contradiction between reliability improvement and system complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a blockchain system as an intermediary to store email fingerprints and a verification mechanism at the receiver end. This intermediary layer handles the complexity of authenticity verification separately, allowing the core email transmission to remain simple while achieving high reliability through the blockchain-based verification process.
2Reliability
If email content is stored in blockchain for verification, then email authenticity is ensured, but storage time and verification time increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system extracts only the essential email content into a compact data fingerprint and stores this fingerprint in the blockchain system, rather than storing the entire email. This extraction approach significantly reduces storage requirements and verification time while maintaining the ability to verify email authenticity, thus resolving the contradiction between reliability and time loss.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the traditional mechanical approach of storing and comparing entire email contents with a cryptographic hash-based fingerprint comparison system. This substitution enables rapid verification by comparing compact fingerprint data instead of large email bodies, dramatically reducing verification time while ensuring authenticity.
3Reliability
If data fingerprint is generated and stored for each email, then tampering detection capability is improved, but data processing overhead increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system replaces energy-intensive full email content processing with efficient cryptographic hash function operations to generate data fingerprints. This substitution dramatically reduces data processing energy requirements while maintaining strong tampering detection capabilities, as cryptographic hashes are computationally efficient yet provide robust integrity verification.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of processing and storing the original email content for verification purposes, the system creates a compact cryptographic copy (fingerprint) of the email content. This copying approach preserves all necessary verification information in a highly compressed form, reducing processing overhead and energy consumption while maintaining complete tampering detection capability.
Data Source
AI summary
A method and a system for confirming e-mail authenticity and a non-transitory storage medium thereof are provided. A sender electronic device produces a data fingerprint based on mail content of an e-mail, inserts the data fingerprint into the e-mail, and transmits the data fingerprint and the mail content to a data storage device to be stored. A receiver electronic device obtains the data fingerprint from the e-mail and acquires, based on the data fingerprint, the corresponding mail content from the data storage device. If the corresponding mail content is not stored in the data storage device or the acquired mail content does not accord with the mail content of the received e-mail, the receiver electronic device marks the e-mail as counterfeit.