Secure electronic mail system

摘要

An e-mail system is disclosed that overcomes many deficiencies of, but is backward compatible with, existing e-mail systems. Embodiments of the system may include various features, including but not limited to: (1) secure transfer of e-mail messages, without the need for users to replace existing e-mail clients or to change e-mail addresses; (2) tracking of all actions performed in connection with an e-mail transmission; (3) the ability for a recipient to view information about an e-mail message, optionally including information about how other addressees have responded to it, before deciding whether to retrieve the e-mail message; (4) the aggregation of entire e-mail conversations into a single threaded view; (5) the ability to include both private and public messages in a single e-mail communication; (6) sender control over downstream actions performed in connection with an e-mail message; (7) flexible control over cryptographic methods used to encrypt emails messages for storage.

主权项

1. A secure email system comprising:
a server system that implements a secure e-mail service; and a sender computing device; wherein the secure email system is configured to: intercept an e-mail message on the sender computing device when the e-mail message is composed and sent by a sender on the sender computing device; send the intercepted e-mail message in unencrypted form over a secure channel to the server system; receive the e-mail message in unencrypted form at the server system, the e-mail message being from the sender, the sender having an account with the secure e-mail service, and being addressed to a recipient that does not have an account with the secure e-mail service; store the e-mail message in encrypted form on the server system; generate, or cause a generation of, an introductory message after receiving of the e-mail message at the server system; send the introductory message from the server system to the sender computing device; transmit, or cause a transmission of, the introductory message from the sender computing device to the recipient in unencrypted form via an SMTP protocol, said introductory message lacking at least some message content of the e-mail message, and including a link to a web client interface that provides functionality to authenticate the recipient and to securely retrieve the e-mail message from the server system and further including a message access key including a message identifier identifying the e-mail message and a service host identifier indicating to the recipient a network accessible address of the server system at which the e-mail message is stored, wherein the message access key does not serve as an encryption or decryption key; upon access of the introductory message by the recipient, programmatically receive recipient data including the message access key and a recipient e-mail address from the recipient; register the recipient with the secure e-mail service by validating the message access key and the recipient e-mail address; and transmit the e-mail message in unencrypted form to the recipient via a secure communications protocol, based on the recipient data.