EMAIL SYSTEM FOR PREVENTING INADVERTANT TRANSMISSION OF PROPRIETARY MESSAGE OR DOCUMENTS TO UNINTENDED RECIPIENT
A system that alerts a sender of an email message as to the addressees of the email, when the email is determined to be sensitive, such as when it includes a word such a “confidential”. The user can allow the message to be sent or go back to a mail create/edit operation where the message or list of addresses can be revised. Trigger words can be stored in a table or database. The system also detects sensitive words in attachments. The sensitive words detected and their locations can be shown in a pop-up message.
This application is a U.S. Continuation Patent Application filed under 37 USC 1.53(b) claiming the benefit of U.S. application Ser. No. 12/831,456, filed Jul. 7, 2010, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
BACKGROUND1. Field
The present invention is directed to a system that can prevent confidential or proprietary email messages from being inadvertently sent.
2. Description of the Related Art
Proprietary or otherwise sensitive or confidential information is routinely exchanged during the ordinary course of business. While the errant or inadvertent transmission of proprietary information in the form a “hard-copy” is rare, such is not the case when proprietary information is included in electronic form (e.g., electronic mail, or “e-mail”.) It is not at all uncommon that email is misaddressed in haste or simply as the result of an oversight. In that event, proprietary information can and does fall into the wrong hands, e.g., a business competitor or the adverse party in a legal proceeding, too frequently. What is needed is the addition of at least two steps in the process of creating and transmitting electronic messages in order to prevent inadvertent disclosure of sensitive information. The first additional step is one that scans the content of the email, including any attachments, for markings that indicate it includes proprietary information (e.g., “Proprietary” header and/or footer, etc.). The second additional step requests that the sender confirm that the email and attachments are intended for the specific addressee(s).
SUMMARYIt is an aspect of the embodiments to provide a system that alerts the user in order to prevent confidential or proprietary email messages from being sent to an unintended recipient inadvertently.
The above aspects can be attained by a system that alerts a user with a message pop-up when an email message is to be sent that may be sensitive, such as when it includes a word such a “confidential”. The user can allow the message to be sent or go back to a mail create/edit operation where the message and/or addressees can be revised. Trigger words can be stored in a table or database. The system also detects sensitive words in attachments. The sensitive words detected and their locations can be shown in the pop-up message.
These together with other aspects and advantages which will be subsequently apparent, reside in the details of construction and operation as more fully hereinafter described and claimed, reference being had to the accompanying drawings forming a part hereof, wherein like numerals refer to like parts throughout.
Proprietary information is commonly exchanged among business partners or potential partners. When it is, confidentiality is or may be critical to a successful venture, and therefore the unintended disclosure of proprietary information can have disastrous effects.
In the modern times, most if not all business data is exchanged electronically, for example by electronic mail (“email”) via the public Internet (“Internet”).
When a sender wishes to share proprietary information that's been prepared as described above, they will ordinarily transmit it via the Internet. As is commonly done today, an email is drafted (see
It can and does happen that email is errantly addressed and therefore ends up in the possession of an unintended recipient. To catch the unintended error and prevent this undesirable result, operations 402-405 of
In the event that one of any of the recognizable words is found 403, in either the email or the attachments, the application displays a “Confirmation Request” 404 in the form of a “pop-up” 501 (see
As depicted in
The embodiments have been described with the pop-up confirmation being displayed when a trigger word is discovered, this can occur when a trigger word is first encountered and it is possible to scan the message and all attachments for trigger words before displaying the pop-up and also provide a list indicating where and what trigger words can be found in the message and/or attachments.
The alert has been described as a pop-up message; the alert can also include a sound alert as well as other alerting techniques such as a blinking red box surrounding the pop-up message.
The embodiments have been described with respect to the scan operation being performed by the client computer 101; however, the scanning can be performed by the server or another machine. The embodiments have been described as using a client computer (such as a desktop, laptop, tablet, etc.) to create the email, attach the attachments, send, etc.; however, it is possible for other types of devices to create and send the email, for example, a handheld digital assistant, a smart telephone, a smart cellular telephone, etc.
The embodiments have been discussed with respect to performing the word search for sensitive words being initiated by the SEND button being pressed. However, the checking can occur based on other events. For example, the checking can be initiated when an address is added to the address filed of a message. As another example, the checking can run in the background much like a spell checker and alert the user whenever a sensitive word is added to the message, that is, the checking can be initiated or started by the creation of an email message or the start of the text. In this situation, it is also possible to set a flag for the production of an alert during the creation of the message when it is being drafted and then pop-up the alert when an address is added to the message address field. The checking can also occur, particularly for an attachment, when or each time an attachment is attached to a message.
The embodiments can be implemented in computing hardware (computing apparatus) and/or software, such as (in a non-limiting example) any computer that can store, retrieve, process and/or output data and/or communicate with other computers. The results produced can be displayed on a display of the computing hardware. A program/software implementing the embodiments may be recorded on a computer-readable media, e.g., a non-transitory or persistent computer-readable medium. The program/software implementing the embodiments may also be transmitted over a transmission communication path, e.g., a network implemented via hardware. Examples of the non-transitory or persistent computer-readable media include a magnetic recording apparatus, an optical disk, a magneto-optical disk, and/or a semiconductor memory (for example, RAM, ROM, etc.). Examples of the magnetic recording apparatus include a hard disk device (HDD), a flexible disk (FD), and a magnetic tape (MT). Examples of the optical disk include a DVD (Digital Versatile Disc), a DVD-RAM, a CD-ROM (Compact Disc-Read Only Memory), and a CD-R (Recordable)/RW. An example of communication media via which the program/software may be sent includes, for example, a carrier-wave signal.
The many features and advantages of the invention are apparent from the detailed specification and, thus, it is intended by the appended claims to cover all such features and advantages of the invention that fall within the true spirit and scope of the invention. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the invention to the exact construction and operation illustrated and described, and accordingly all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of the invention.
Claims
1. A method, comprising:
- specifying trigger words in a trigger word table before a message is sent where the trigger words indicate proprietary, confidential or sensitive material;
- detecting initiation of sending of an email message by detecting activation of a send function;
- scanning, by an email system, the message for the trigger words of the trigger word table indicating that a message may include proprietary, confidential or sensitive material where the message comprises a message body and message attachments;
- alerting the user, that the user is about to send a message when the message includes one or more of the trigger words, with a pop-up display message comprising a list of trigger words found, locations in the message body and message attachments of the trigger words found and an email address of the email message recipient;
- allowing the user to approve sending the message and sending the message using an icon; and
- allowing the user to disapprove sending the message and initiate revising the message using another icon.
2. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the trigger words are selected to stop sending of the email message determined as comprising confidential, proprietary or sensitive material.
3. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the user is alerted directly when one or more of the trigger words are first found.
4. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the alerting is triggered by an exact match with one or more of the trigger words.
5. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the corresponding locations of the one or more of the trigger words determined to be included in the at least one of the message body and the attachment of the email message respectively identify the one or more of the trigger words as being located in one or more of a subject line, the message body and the attachment.
6. A system, comprising:
- an email server computer; and
- an email client computer allowing specification of trigger words in a trigger word table before a message is sent where the trigger words indicate proprietary, confidential or sensitive material, detecting initiation of sending of an email message by detecting activation of a send function., scanning, by an email system, the message for the trigger words of the trigger word table indicating that a message may include proprietary, confidential or sensitive material where the message comprises a message body and message attachments, alerting the user, that the user is about to send a message when the message includes one or more of the trigger words, with a pop-up display message comprising a list of trigger words found, locations in the message body and message attachments of the trigger words found and an email address of the email message recipient, allowing the user to approve sending the message and sending the message using an icon and allowing the user to disapprove sending the message and initiate revising the message using another icon.
7. A non-transitory computer readable storage storing a process, comprising:
- specifying trigger words in a trigger word table before a message is sent where the trigger words indicate proprietary, confidential or sensitive material;
- detecting initiation of sending of an email message by detecting activation of a send function;
- scanning, by an email system, the message for the trigger words of the trigger word table indicating that a message may include proprietary, confidential or sensitive material where the message comprises a message body and message attachments;
- alerting the user, that the user is about to send a message when the message includes one or more of the trigger words, with a pop-up display message comprising a list of trigger words found, locations in the message body and message attachments of the trigger words found and an email address of the email message recipient;
- allowing the user to approve sending the message and sending the message using an icon; and
- allowing the user to disapprove sending the message and initiate revising the message using another icon.
8. A display comprising a pop-up message indicating a message to be sent is a sensitive message the pop-up display message includes a surrounding border that blinks, an indication that the user is about to send the message with one or more of trigger words determined as indicating confidential, proprietary or sensitive material, an email address of an addressee of the email message and corresponding locations of the one or more of the trigger words in the email message.
Type: Application
Filed: Jun 30, 2016
Publication Date: Oct 20, 2016
Inventors: Mark MEISTER (Potomac, MD), James Randall Beckers (Rockville, MD)
Application Number: 15/197,974