Instream Message Alerts for Real-Time Phishing Detection

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing cybersecurity solutions struggle to provide timely and relevant information to end users about potentially malicious messages while balancing resource consumption and network limitations.

Innovation Solution

A computing platform monitors messages in real-time, identifies potentially malicious content, and generates instream alerts by sending alert messages to messaging servers and user devices, utilizing machine learning models to distinguish between legitimate and malicious messages.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If real-time message monitoring is implemented to detect malicious messages, then user protection against phishing and spam is improved, but computing resource consumption and network bandwidth usage increase

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveuser protection against malicious messagesVSAvoidcomputing resource consumption

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSUse of energy by moving object

Solution Approach 1:

The patent introduces an intermediary computing platform that acts as a mediator between the messaging server and user devices. This platform monitors messages, detects malicious content using machine learning models, and generates alert messages without requiring intensive processing at the user devices themselves, thus distributing the computational burden and protecting user resources while maintaining high reliability in malicious message detection

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Solution Approach 2:

The system performs preliminary analysis and detection of malicious messages at the computing platform before delivering messages to user devices. By pre-processing and identifying threats in advance, the system reduces the need for resource-intensive real-time analysis at user endpoints, optimizing the balance between protection reliability and resource consumption

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

2Reliability

If real-time message monitoring is implemented to detect malicious messages, then user protection against phishing and spam is improved, but network bandwidth consumption increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveuser protection against malicious messagesVSAvoidnetwork bandwidth consumption

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSLoss of energy

Solution Approach 1:

The patent extracts only the essential monitoring and detection functions to a centralized computing platform, separating these from the message delivery path. By taking out the analysis burden from the network transmission path and concentrating it at the platform level, the system reduces redundant data transmission and optimizes network bandwidth usage while maintaining comprehensive monitoring capabilities

Inventive Principle:

Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Solution Approach 2:

The computing platform serves as an intermediary that processes messages once at the server level before delivery, rather than requiring multiple devices along the transmission path to perform independent analysis. This intermediary approach eliminates redundant processing and reduces overall network bandwidth consumption while maintaining high detection reliability

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

3Loss of time

If instream alerts are generated and delivered to user devices, then timely user awareness of malicious messages is improved, but device complexity and processing requirements increase

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveuser awareness timeVSAvoiddevice processing requirements

Core Design Contradiction:

Loss of timeVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The computing platform performs self-service by generating and delivering alert messages autonomously based on its detection of malicious content. The platform automatically creates contextualized alerts with relevant information and delivers them to user devices without requiring complex local processing or user intervention, thus reducing device complexity while maintaining rapid response times

Inventive Principle:

Principle #25Self-service

Solution Approach 2:

The computing platform acts as an intermediary that prepares and delivers simplified alert messages to user devices, shielding users from the complexity of the underlying detection algorithms and message analysis. The platform translates complex detection results into user-friendly alerts, reducing the processing burden on user devices while ensuring timely awareness

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Data Source

PatentUS20260075087A1Executing Real-Time Message Monitoring to Identify Potentially Malicious Messages and Generate Instream Alerts

Publication Date: 2026.03.12 PROOFPOINT INC

AI summary

Aspects of the disclosure relate to identifying potentially malicious messages and generating instream alerts based on real-time message monitoring. A computing platform may monitor a plurality of messages received by a messaging server associated with an operator. Subsequently, the computing platform may detect that a message of the plurality of messages is potentially malicious. In response to detecting that the message of the plurality of messages is potentially malicious, the computing platform may execute one or more protection actions. In executing the one or more protection actions, the computing platform may generate an alert message comprising information indicating that the message of the plurality of messages is potentially malicious. Then, the computing platform may send the alert message to the messaging server, which may cause the messaging server to deliver the alert message to a computing device associated with an intended recipient of the message.