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 method of prioritizing messages, comprising:
receiving one or more first incoming messages from a computer network, the incoming messages having a reputation score below a first threshold; adding the one or more first incoming messages to a receiving queue; receiving a second incoming message from the computer network, the second incoming message having a reputation score above the first threshold; determining via electronic processing circuitry that the receiving queue's content is above a capacity threshold; in response to the determination that the content is above the capacity threshold, selecting a first queued message for removal from the receiving queue based on the selected message having a reputation score below the first threshold; removing the selected message from the receiving queue; and adding the second incoming message to the receiving queue.