Email Sender Verification via Whitelist Interception
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing email communication systems lack effective methods to verify the identity of email senders, leading to potential email spoofing and phishing attacks, especially targeting key personnel within organizations.
Innovation Solution
A method that intercepts emails within an organization, compares the sender's display name and email address to a whitelist of verified contact information for key employees, and flags or quarantines emails that do not match, thereby preventing unauthorized access.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If email interception and verification methods are implemented, then email security is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary verification by comparing sender information against a whitelist database before emails are delivered to recipients. This advance checking prevents phishing emails from reaching users, improving security without requiring complex real-time analysis during email delivery
Solution Approach 2:
A whitelist database serves as an intermediary component that stores pre-verified sender information. This mediator simplifies the verification process by providing a ready-reference source for authentic senders, reducing the complexity of real-time verification while maintaining high security standards
2Reliability
If sender verification is performed for all emails, then reliability is improved, but productivity decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies verification selectively rather than universally - it focuses on comparing sender information against the whitelist for emails that require authentication. This partial verification approach maintains high reliability for critical communications while avoiding unnecessary verification overhead for routine emails, thus preserving productivity
Data Source
AI summary
One variation of the method S100 includes: intercepting a first email addressed to a target recipient within an organization, the first email received from a first sender at a first email address including a first email domain; querying a rules engine, administered by the organization, for tags associated with elements of the first email address; and, in response to receiving a first tag, associated with the first email address, from the rules engine, annotating the first email with the first tag and authorizing transmission of the first email to the target recipient with the first tag presented within the first email within an email client of the target recipient.