System for securing electronic mail

(54) SYSTEM FOR SECURING ELECTRONIC MAIL

(75) Inventor: Nimrod Megiddo, Palo Alto, CA (US)

(73) Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US)

( * ) Notice: Subject to any disclaimer, the term of this patent is extended or adjusted under 35 U.S.C. 154(b) by 602 days.

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Appl. No.: 09/634,547
Filed: Aug. 8, 2000

Int. CI.7 G06F 15/16; H04L 9/00

U.S. CI 709/206; 713/200; 713/201;

713/153; 380/255; 380/268

Field of Search 709/206, 238;

713/200, 201, 151, 152, 153; 380/33, 28,

255, 268

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FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS

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OTHER PUBLICATIONS

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* cited by examiner

Primary Examiner—Dung C. Dinh

Assistant Examiner—Bradley Edelman

(74) Attorney, Agent, or Firm—Lacasse & Associates;

Randy W. Lacasse; Mark McSwain

(57) ABSTRACT

Encrypted e-mails that reside in e-mail service providers servers or a gateway machines can be compromised and deciphered with advances in technology for breaking encryption codes. Significant security can be achieved by encrypting the message, splitting message, and transmitting the individual fragments via a set of unique e-mail servers. At the receivers end, the message can be reconstructed from the individual pieces and then decrypted and displayed to the recipient.

18 Claims, 8 Drawing Sheets