Instant Message Filtering With Warning Alerts and Background Analysis
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing instant messaging systems lack effective mechanisms to identify and filter out unwanted or malicious messages without introducing significant latency, as traditional email scanning and filtering methods are not suitable due to the instantaneous delivery expectations of instant messaging.
Innovation Solution
Implement a lightweight initial scan and filter operation at the service provider level, delivering messages with a warning notification, followed by a detailed analysis in the background to confirm the message's classification as benign or malicious, maintaining virtually instantaneous delivery.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional email scanning and filtering methods are used in instant messaging systems, then message security and unwanted message identification are improved, but delivery latency increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The filtering process is divided into two distinct stages: a lightweight initial scan that performs basic filtering criteria checks immediately during delivery, and a comprehensive analysis pipeline that operates asynchronously in the background. This segmentation allows the system to maintain fast initial delivery while performing thorough security checks without blocking the primary delivery path.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs a preliminary lightweight scan and filter operation during the message delivery process to identify obviously unwanted or malicious messages quickly. This preliminary action filters out the most critical cases immediately, allowing those messages to be handled separately while benign messages continue through to the recipient without delay.
2Measurement precision
If comprehensive message analysis is performed before delivery, then message classification accuracy is improved, but delivery speed deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The analysis process is segmented into a fast lightweight initial scan that runs during delivery and a more comprehensive analysis that runs asynchronously. The initial scan provides sufficient accuracy for immediate delivery decisions, while the comprehensive analysis refines the classification without affecting the delivery timeline.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs a preliminary classification using lightweight criteria during the delivery process, providing immediate accuracy for delivery decisions. The comprehensive analysis pipeline then processes the same message in the background to refine and confirm the classification, ensuring high accuracy without sacrificing delivery speed.
3Speed
If lightweight initial scanning is performed during delivery, then delivery speed is maintained, but filtering effectiveness may be reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs a preliminary lightweight scan during delivery that applies basic filtering criteria to maintain speed. For messages that pass this initial scan, the system then initiates comprehensive analysis in the background, ensuring that filtering effectiveness is not compromised while maintaining fast delivery for the majority of benign messages.
Solution Approach 2:
The filtering process continues uninterrupted through multiple stages: the lightweight initial scan during delivery, followed by continuous background processing in the analytics pipeline. This continuity ensures that comprehensive filtering is applied to all messages without creating delivery delays, as the heavy processing occurs parallel to rather than sequential to the delivery process.
Data Source
AI summary
Mechanisms are provided for delivering instant messages to recipient computing systems. An instant message is received for delivery to a recipient computing system (recipient) and is sent to the recipient which displays the instant message in a dialog interface. At substantially a same time, a lightweight initial scan/filter operation is executed on the message to determine a preliminary classification of the message as being benign or unwanted/malicious. If unwanted/malicious, a warning notification is sent to the recipient for display in the dialog interface, the message is processed via an analytics pipeline to determine a final classification, and a command message is sent based on the final classification to the recipient to update the dialog interface.