METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ELECTRONIC MAIL FILTERING

摘要

Messages having a reputation score higher than at least one message already on a queue are added to the queue when the queue has already reached the predetermined maximum permitted size. One or more messages having a low reputation score may be discarded from a bottom of the queue in favor of a new incoming message having a higher reputation score. This may be particularly useful in the context of Internet e-mail, wherein mail delivery protocols (i.e. SMTP) allow a connection for an incoming message to be held open for a limited time period and during this period the message processing apparatus does not assume responsibility for onward transmission of the message. Thus, the message processing apparatus is able to selectively accept only those messages having a highest reputation score for detailed analysis, without adversely affecting the operations performed by other parts of the electronic messaging system.

主权项

1. A message processing apparatus comprising:
a processor; a memory storing instructions that configure the processor to perform a method of processing messages on a communication path between a client unit and a server unit, the method comprising:
receiving an incoming message from a client unit and determining a client identity with respect to the client unit,allocating a reputation score to the incoming message with respect to the determined client identity,storing the incoming message with a plurality of messages in a message queue ordered according to the reputation score allocated to the incoming message,extracting a message with the highest reputation score from the message queue, andtransmitting the extracted message to the server unit.