REPUTATION BASED MESSAGE PROCESSING

[0001] This application is a continuation-in-part and claims priority to and the benefit of U.S. application Ser. No. 11/142,943 (entitled “Systems And Methods For Classification Of Messaging Entities”) filed on Jun. 2, 2005, which claims priority as a utility of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/625,507 (entitled “Classification of Messaging Entities”) filed on Nov. 5, 2004, both of which the entire disclosures (including any and all figures) are incorporated herein by reference.

[0002] This application is a continuation-in-part and claims priority to and the benefit of U.S. application Ser. No. 11/173,941 (entitled “Message Profiling Systems And Methods”) filed on Jul. 1, 2005, which claims priority as a utility of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/625,507 (entitled “Classification of Messaging Entities”) filed on Nov. 5, 2004, both of which the entire disclosures (including any and all figures) are incorporated herein by reference.

[0003] This disclosure relates generally to processing electronic communications.

[0004] Spammers and other malicious internet users use various creative means for evading detection by messaging filters. Accordingly, message filter designers adopt a strategy of combining various detection techniques in their filters.

[0005] Current tools for message sender analysis include IP blacklists (sometimes called real-time blacklists (RBLs)) and IP whitelists (real-time whitelists (RWLs)). Whitelists and blacklists certainly add value to the spam classification process; however, whitelists and blacklists are inherently limited to providing a binary-type (YES/NO) response to each query. In contrast, a reputation system has the ability to express an opinion of a sender in terms of a scalar number in some defined range. Thus, where blacklists and whitelists are limited to “black and white” responses, a reputation system can express “shades of gray” in its response.

[0006] In accordance with the teachings disclosed herein, methods and systems are provided for operation upon one or more data processors for assigning a reputation to a messaging entity. A method can include receiving data that identifies one or more characteristics related to a messaging entity's communication. A reputation score is determined based upon the received identification data. The determined reputation score is indicative of reputation of the messaging entity. The determined reputation score is used in deciding what action is to be taken with respect to a communication associated with the messaging entity.

[0007] Systems, methods, apparatuses and computer program products for processing electronic communications are provided. In one aspect, methods are disclosed, which include: receiving a message through a communications interface, the message comprising information about an entity; identifying a reputation for the entity associated with the message; queuing the message based upon the reputation associated with the entity or based upon a message profile associated with the message, thereby delaying delivery of the message; and processing the queued message based upon updated reputation or message profile information.

[0008] Systems can include a communications interface, a message processing module, a queuing module and a reprocessing module. The communications interface can receive electronic messages associated with an entity. The message processing module can process the electronic message to identify the entity and can send a reputation query to a reputation module to identify a reputation of the entity associated with the electronic message. The queuing module can place an electronic message into a queue based upon the reputation of the entity associated with the electronic message. The reprocessing module can periodically query the reputation module for an updated reputation for the entity associated with the electronic message, and can process the electronic message based upon the updated reputation of the entity associated with the electronic message.

[0009] The details of one or more embodiments of the subject matter described in this specification are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below. Other features, aspects, and advantages of the subject matter will become apparent from the description, the drawings, and the claims.

[0022] FIG. 1 depicts at 30 a system for handling transmissions received over a network 40. The transmissions can be many different types of communications, such as electronic mail (e-mail) messages sent from one or more messaging entities 50. The system 30 assigns a classification to a messaging entity (e.g., messaging entity 52), and based upon the classification assigned to the messaging entity, an action is taken with respect to the messaging entity's communication.

[0023] The system 30 uses a filtering system 60 and a reputation system 70 to help process communications from the messaging entities 50. The filtering system 60 uses the reputation system 70 to help determine what filtering action (if any) should be taken upon the messaging entities' communications. For example, the communication may be determined to be from a reputable source and thus the communication should not be filtered.

[0024] The filtering system 60 identifies at 62 one or more message characteristics associated with a received communication and provides that identification information to the reputation system 70. The reputation system 70 evaluates the reputation by calculating probabilities that the identified message characteristic(s) exhibit certain qualities. An overall reputation score is determined based upon the calculated probabilities and is provided to the filtering system 60.

[0025] The filtering system 60 examines at 64 the reputation score in order to determine what action should be taken for the sender's communication (such as whether the communication transmission should be delivered to the communication's designated recipient located within a message receiving system 80). The filtering system 60 could decide that a communication should be handled differently based in whole or in part upon the reputation scored that was provided by the reputation system 70. As an illustration, a communication may be determined to be from a non-reputable sender and thus the communication should be handled as Spam (e.g., deleted, quarantined, etc.).

[0026] Reputation systems may be configured in many different ways in order to assist a filtering system. For example, a reputation system 70 can be located externally or internally relative to the filtering system 60 depending upon the situation at hand. As another example, FIG. 2 depicts a reputation system 70 that has been configured to calculate reputation scores based upon such message characteristic identification information as sender identity as shown at 82. It should be understood that other message characteristics can be used instead of or in addition to sender identity. Moreover, transmissions may be from many different types of messaging entities, such as a domain name, IP address, phone number, or individual electronic address or username representing an organization, computer, or individual user that transmits electronic messages. For example, generated classifications of reputable and non-reputable can be based upon a tendency for an IP address to send unwanted transmissions or legitimate communication.

[0027] The system's configuration 90 could also, as shown in FIG. 2, be established by identifying a set of binary, testable criteria 92 which appear to be strong discriminators between good and bad senders. P (NR|C_i) can be defined as the probability that a sender is non-reputable, given that it conforms to quality/criterion C_i, and P (R|C_i) can be defined as the probability that a sender is reputable, given that it conforms to quality/criterion C_i.

[0028] For each quality/criterion C_i, periodic (e.g., daily, weekly, monthly, etc.) sampling exercises can be performed to recalculate P (NR|C_i). A sampling exercise may include selecting a random sample set S of N senders for which quality/criterion C_i is known to be true. The senders in the sample are then sorted into one of the following sets: reputable (R), non-reputable (NR) or unknown (U). NR is the number of senders in the sample that are reputable senders, N_NR is the number of senders that are non-reputable senders, etc. Then, P (NR|C_i) and P (R|C_i) are estimated using the formulas:

$P\left(\mathrm{NR}C_i\right)=\frac{N_{\mathrm{NR}}}{N}$ $P\left(RC_i\right)=\frac{N_R}{N}$

For this purpose, N=30 was determined to be a large enough sample size to achieve an accurate estimate of P (NR|C_i) and P (R|C_i) for each quality/criterion C_i.

[0029] After calculating P (NR|C_i) and P (R|C_i) for all criteria, the computed probabilities are used to calculate an aggregate non-reputable probability 94, P_NR, and an aggregate reputable sender probability 96, P_R, for each sender in the reputation space. These probabilities can be calculated using the formulas:

$P_{\mathrm{NR}=}\hspace{1em}(1-\prod _{i=1}^N{\left\{\begin{array}{cc}1-P\left(\mathrm{NR}C_i\right)& \mathrm{if}\mathrm{criterion}i\mathrm{applies}\\ 1& \mathrm{otherwise}\end{array}\right)}^{\left(\#\mathrm{of}\mathrm{criteria}\mathrm{that}\mathrm{apply}\right)}P_R=(1-\prod _{i=1}^N{\left\{\begin{array}{cc}1-P\left(RC_i\right)& \mathrm{if}\mathrm{criterion}i\mathrm{applies}\\ 1& \mathrm{otherwise}\end{array}\right)}^{\left(\#\mathrm{of}\mathrm{criteria}\mathrm{that}\mathrm{apply}\right)}$

In experimentation, the above formulas appeared to behave very well for a wide range of input criteria combinations, and in practice their behavior appears to be similar to the behavior of the formula for correctly computing naïve joint conditional probabilities of “non-reputable” and “reputable” behavior for the input criteria.

[0030] After calculating P_NR and P_R for each sender, a reputation score is calculated for that sender using the following reputation function:

$f\left(P_{\mathrm{NR}},P_R\right)=\left(c_1+c_2P_{\mathrm{NR}}+c_2P_R+c_3P_{\mathrm{NR}}^2+c_3P_R^2+c_4P_{\mathrm{NR}}P_R+c_5P_{\mathrm{NR}}^3+c_5P_R^3+c_6P_{\mathrm{NR}}P_R^2+c_6P_{\mathrm{NR}}^2P_R\right)\left({\left(P_{\mathrm{NR}}-P_R\right)}^3+c_7\left(P_{\mathrm{NR}}-P_R\right)\right)$

[0031] where

[0032] c₁=86.50

[0033] c₂=−193.45

[0034] c₃=−35.19

[0035] c₄=581.09

[0036] c₅=234.81

[0037] c₆=−233.18

[0038] c₇=0.51

It should be understood that different functions can act as a reputation score determinator 98 and can be expressed in many different forms in addition to a functional expression. As an illustration, FIG. 3 depicts at 100 a tabular form for determining reputation scores. The table shows reputation scores produced by the above function, based on values of P_NR and P_R as they each vary between 0.0 and 1.0. For example as shown at 110, a reputation score of 53 is obtained for the combination of P_NR=0.9 and P_R=0.2. This reputation score is a relatively high indicator that the sender should not be considered reputable. A reputation score of 0 is obtained if P_NR and P_R are the same (e.g., the reputation score is 0 if P_NR=0.7 and P_R=0.7 as shown at 120). A reputation score can have a negative value to indicate that a sender is relatively reputable as determined when P_R is greater than P_NR. For example, if P_NR=0.5 and P_R=0.8 as shown at 130, then the reputation score is −12.

[0039] Reputation scores can be shown graphically as depicted in FIG. 4 at 150. Graph 150 was produced by the above function, based on values of P_NR and P_R. FIG. 4 illustrates reputation score determinations in the context of Spam in that the terms P_NR and P_R are used respectively as probability of hamminess and probability of spamminess as the probabilities each vary between 0.0 and 1.0.

[0040] As shown in these examples, reputation scores can be numeric reputations that are assigned to messaging entities based on characteristics of a communication (e.g., messaging entity characteristic(s)) and/or a messaging entity's behavior. Numeric reputations can fluctuate between a continuous spectrum of reputable and non-reputable classifications. However, reputations may be non-numeric, such as by having textual, or multiple level textual categories.

[0041] FIG. 5 depicts an operational scenario wherein a reputation system is used by a filtering system to generate reputation scores. In this operational scenario, a reputation score is computed for a particular sender (e.g., IP address, domain name, phone number, address, name, etc), from a set of input data. With reference to FIG. 5, data is gathered at step 200 that is needed to calculate non-reputable and reputable probabilities for a sender. The data is then aggregated at step 210 and used in probability calculations at step 220. This includes determining, for a sender, non-reputable probabilities and reputable probabilities for various selected criteria. An aggregate non-reputable probability and an aggregate reputable probability are then calculated for each sender.

[0042] After calculating an aggregate non-reputable probability and an aggregate reputable probability for each sender, a reputation score is calculated at 230 for that sender using a reputation function. At step 240, the sender's reputation score is distributed locally and/or to one or more systems to evaluate a communication associated with the sender. As an illustration, reputation scores can be distributed to a filtering system. With the reputation score, the filtering system can choose to take an action on the transmission based on the range the sender reputation score falls into. For unreputable senders, a filtering system can choose to drop the transmission (e.g., silently), save it in a quarantine area, or flag the transmission as suspicious. In addition, a filter system can choose to apply such actions to all future transmissions from this sender for a specified period of time, without requiring new lookup queries to be made to the reputation system. For reputable senders, a filtering system can similarly apply actions to the transmissions to allow them to bypass all or certain filtering techniques that cause significant processing, network, or storage overhead for the filtering system.

[0043] It should be understood that similar to the other processing flows described herein, the processing and the order of the processing may be altered, modified and/or augmented and still achieve the desired outcome. For example, an optional addition to the step of extracting unique identifying information about the sender of the transmission would be to use sender authentication techniques to authenticate certain parts of the transmission, such as the purported sending domain name in the header of the message, to unforgeable information about the sender, such as the IP address the transmission originated from. This process can allow the filtering system to perform lookups on the reputation system by querying for information that can potentially be forged, had it not been authenticated, such as a domain name or email address. If such domain or address has a positive reputation, the transmission can be delivered directly to the recipient system bypassing all or some filtering techniques. If it has a negative reputation, the filtering system can choose to drop the transmission, save it in a quarantine area, or flag it as suspicious.

[0044] Many different types of sender authentication techniques can be used, such as the Sender Policy Framework (SPF) technique. SPF is a protocol by which domain owners publish DNS records that indicate which IP addresses are allowed to send mail on behalf of a given domain. As other non-limiting examples, SenderID or DomainKeys can be used as sender authentication techniques.

[0045] As another example, many different types of criteria may be used in processing a sender's communication. FIG. 6 depicts the use of non-reputable criteria 300 and reputable criteria 310 for use in determining reputation scores.

[0046] The non-reputable criteria 300 and reputable criteria 310 help to distinguish non-reputable senders and reputable senders. A set of criteria can change often without significantly affecting the reputation scores produced using this scoring technique. As an illustration within the context of SPAM identification, the following is a list of spamminess criteria that could be used in the reputation scoring of a message sender. The list is not intended to be exhaustive, and can be adapted to include other criteria or remove criteria based upon observed behavior.

• • [0047] 1. Mean Spam Score: A sender is declared “non-reputable” if a mean spam profiler score of transmissions that it sends exceeds some threshold, W.
  • [0048] 2. RDNS Lookup Failure: A sender is declared “non-reputable” if reverse domain name system (RDNS) queries for its IP addresses fail.
  • [0049] 3. RBL Membership: A sender is declared “non-reputable” if it is included in a real-time blackhole list (RBL). (Note: multiple RBLs may be used. Each RBL can constitute a separate testing criterion.)
  • [0050] 4. Mail Volume: A sender is declared “non-reputable” if its average (mean or median) transmission volume exceeds a threshold, X, where X is measured in transmissions over a period of time (such as, e.g., a day, week, or month). (Note: multiple average volumes over multiple time periods may be used, and each average volume can constitute a separate testing criterion.)
  • [0051] 5. Mail Burstiness/Sending History: A sender is declared “non-reputable” if its average (mean or median) transmission traffic pattern burstiness (defined by the number of active sending sub-periods within a larger time period, e.g., number of active sending hours in a day or number of active sending days in a month) is less than some threshold, Y, where Y is measured in sub-periods per period. (Note: multiple average burstiness measures over multiple time periods may be used, and each average burstiness measure can constitute a separate testing criterion.)
  • [0052] 6. Mail Breadth: A sender is declared “non-reputable” if its average (mean or median) transmission traffic breadth (as defined by the percentage of systems that receive transmissions from the same sender during a period of time (such as, e.g., a day, week, or month)) exceeds some threshold, Z. (Note: multiple average breadths over multiple time periods may be used, and each average breadth measure can constitute a separate testing criterion.)
  • [0053] 7. Malware Activity: A sender is declared “non-reputable” if it is known to have delivered one or more malware codes (such as, e.g., viruses, spyware, intrusion code, etc) during a measurement period (e.g., a day, week, or month).
  • [0054] 8. Type of Address: A sender is declared “non-reputable” if it is known to be dynamically assigned to dial-up or broadband dynamic host control protocol (DHCP) clients by an internet service provider (ISP).
  • [0055] 9. CIDR Block Spamminess: A sender is declared “non-reputable” if its IP addresses are known to exist within classless inter-domain routing (CIDR) blocks that contain predominantly “non-reputable” IP addresses.
  • [0056] 10. Human Feedback: A sender is declared “non-reputable” if it is reported to have sent undesirable transmissions by people analyzing the content and other characteristics of those transmissions.
  • [0057] 11. SpamTrap Feedback: A sender is declared “non-reputable” if it is sending transmissions to accounts that have been declared as spamtraps and as such are not supposed to receive any legitimate transmissions.
  • [0058] 12. Bounceback Feedback: A sender is declared “non-reputable” if it is sending bounceback transmissions or transmissions to accounts that do not exist on the destination system.
  • [0059] 13. Legislation/Standards Conformance: A sender is declared “non-reputable” if it is not conforming to laws, regulations, and well-established standards of transmission behavior in the countries of operation of either the sender and/or the recipient of the transmissions.
  • [0060] 14. Continuity of Operation: A sender is declared “non-reputable” if it has not operated at that sending location longer than some threshold Z.
  • [0061] 15. Responsiveness to Recipient Demands: A sender is declared “non-reputable” if it is not responding in a reasonable timeframe to legitimate demands of the recipients to terminate their relationship with the sender to not receive any more transmissions from them.

[0062] The following is a list of “reputable” criteria that could be used in determining the “reputability” of a sender. The list is not intended to be exhaustive, and can be adapted to include other criteria or remove criteria based upon observed behavior.

• • [0063] 1. Mean Spam Score: A sender is declared “reputable” if the mean spam profiler score of transmissions that it sends falls below some threshold, W.
  • [0064] 2. Human Feedback: A sender is declared “reputable” if it is reported to have sent only legitimate transmissions by people analyzing transmission flows from that sender, in conjunction with the reputation of the organization that owns those sending stations.

[0065] After computing a reputation grade for each sender in the universe of senders, a reputation classification can be made available via a communication protocol that can be interpreted by the queriers that make use of the reputation system (e.g., DNS, HTTP, etc). As shown in FIG. 7, when a query 350 is issued for a sender, the reputation system can respond with a return value 360 that includes the reputation score of that sender, as well as any other relevant additional information that can be used by the querier to make the final judgment on the acceptability of the sender's transmission (e.g., age of the reputation score, input data that determined the score, etc).

[0066] An example of a communication protocol that can be used is a domain name system (DNS) server which can respond with a return value in the form of an IP address: 172.x.y.z. The IP address can be encoded using the formula:

$\mathrm{IP}=172·\left(\frac{\mathrm{rep}-\mathrm{rep}}{2\times \mathrm{rep}}\right)·\left(\mathrm{rep}\mathrm{div}256\right)·\left(\mathrm{rep}\mathrm{mod}256\right)$

[0067] The reputation of the queried sender can be deciphered from the return value as follows:

rep=(−1)^2−x×(256y+z)

[0068] Therefore, when x=0, the returned reputation is a positive number, and when x=1, the returned reputation is a negative number. The absolute value of the reputation is determined by the values of y and z. This encoding scheme enables the server to return via the DNS protocol reputation values within the range [−65535, 65535]. It also leaves seven (7) unused bits, namely the seven high-order bits of x. These bits can be reserved for extensions to the reputation system. (For example, the age of a reputation score may be communicated back to the querier.)

[0069] FIG. 8 is a block diagram illustrating an example reputation based message processing system. The reputation based message processing system can include a communication processing system 500. The communication processing system 500 can receive messages through a network 505. The messages can include electronic communications from a messaging entity 510 to a client 515. In some implementations, the electronic communications can be controlled by a message transfer agent (MTA) 520. In various examples, electronic communications can include electronic mail, hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) messages, file transfer protocol (FTP) messages, instant messaging messages, and real-time streaming protocol messages, voice over internet protocol (VoIP) messages, among many others.

[0070] The communication processing system 500 can operate to determine a message threat associated with messages received from the network. In some implementations, the message processing system 500 can include a communications interface 525, a message processing module 530, a queuing module 535, and an optional reprocessing module 540. The components of the communications processing system 500 can query reputation information and/or message profiling information from other system. However, in some implementations, a reputation system and/or a message profiler can be internal to the communication processing system 500.

[0071] The communications interface 525 can operate to receive messages through the network 505. In some implementations, the communications interface 525 can receive messages of a variety of protocols based upon the protocols supported by the communications processing system 500. The communications interface 525 can also operate to send communications to other devices coupled to the network 505.

[0072] The message processing module 530 can operate to query a reputation module (e.g., reputation server 545) and/or a message profiler 550. In some implementations, the message processing module 530 can use local reputation and/or message profile information to classify a risk associated with a message. In other implementations, the message processing module 530 can use non-local (e.g., global) reputation and/or message profile information to classify risk associated with a message. In still further implementations, a combination of local and non-local reputation and/or message profile information can be used to classify a risk associated with a message.

[0073] The message processing module 530 can process the message based upon reputation and/or message profile information associated with the message. In some implementations, when the reputation and/or reputation profile information is indeterminate, the message processing module 530 can send the message to a queuing module 535. An indeterminate reputation can be, for example, a reputation associated with an entity that has not previously been observed by the reputation server 545. In some implementations, a score is associated with all entities, some scores are not strong enough to provide an accurate classification of the message. An indeterminate message profile can be, for example, a message that has not previously been interrogated by the message profiler. When the reputation or message profile information associated with the message is indeterminate, the entity or message profile might not have been observed by the system prior to the current message.

[0074] The queuing module 535 can operate to store messages with indeterminate reputation or message profile information in a queue such that delivery of those messages to a recipient (e.g., client 515) is delayed. While the message is stored by the queuing module 535, a reputation module (e.g., reputation server 545) can collect additional information about an entity associated with the message. When the reputation module has collected enough information to identify a determinate reputation (e.g., reputable or non-reputable), the message can be released from the queuing module 535.

[0075] In some implementations, a reprocessing module 540 can periodically query a reputation module (e.g., reputation server 545) and/or a message profiler 550 to identify a reputation of entities associated with messages stored by the queuing module 535. In other implementations, the reputation server 545 or message profiler 550 can collect additional information about the entity, and can affirmatively notify the reprocessing module 540 when a reputation has been determined (e.g., without receiving a query). The reprocessing module 540 can remove a message the queuing module and process the message based upon updated reputation and/or message profile information received from the reputation server 545 and the message profiler 550, respectively. Thus, delivery of messages which have an indeterminate reputation or message profile can be delayed until the reputation or message profile is determinate of the classification of risk associated with the message. In some implementations, if a message has been stored by the queuing module for greater than a threshold period of time, the message can be reprocessed with the indeterminate reputation and/or message profile. In further implementations, notification of a queued message can be provided to a recipient, and the recipient can be provided with a manual release interface whereby he/she can manually release the message from the queue.

[0076] In some implementations, the reprocessing module 540 can instruct an MTA 520 to deliver the message if the updated reputation indicates that the reputation of the message is reputable and/or the updated message profile indicates that the message is legitimate. In further implementations, the reprocessing module 540 can send the message to a message interrogation engine based upon the updated reputation indicates that the message is non-reputable or that an updated message profile indicates that the message is non-legitimate. Message interrogation engines can include, for example, virus interrogation engines, spam interrogation engines, phishing interrogation engines, etc. designed to identify specific anomalies within communications that exhibit a specific tendency. For example, a reputation may indicate that a message is associated with an entity that has a reputation for viruses. In such instances, the message can be sent to virus interrogation engines to provide protection against the specific tendency the entity exhibits. In other examples, the message can be sent to multiple interrogation engines responsive to updated reputation or message profile information. In still further examples, messages that are associated with non-reputable entities or have non-legitimate message profiles can be interrogated by each of a plurality of interrogation engines.

[0077] In some implementations, the optional reprocessing module 540 can be included within the message processing module 530. Thus, the message processing module 530 can provide both the initial processing of a received message and the subsequent reprocessing of a queued message.

[0078] FIG. 9 is a block diagram illustrating an example reputation server. In various implementations, the reputation server 545 can include a communications interface 600, a reputation module 610, a flagging module 620, and a reputation information collection module 630. The communications interface 600 can operate to receive reputation queries from other devices (e.g., communication processing system 500). The reputation queries can include information about the entity (e.g., message originator, message recipient, message components, an intermediate server, a transit path associated with the communication of the message, among others) being queried. In some implementations, the query can include the message itself, and the reputation server can parse the entities associated with the message.

[0079] The reputation module 610 can score the reputation of an entity associated with a queried message. The reputation score can be a raw score indicating the risk associated with an entity related to the message. In some implementations, the reputation module 610 can abstract the score to provide a classification of the reputation score. For example, a message that has a score indicating a high likelihood that the entity is non-reputable can be rated as non-reputable. In other examples, if an entity associated with the message shows only a low correlation to either reputable or non-reputable behavior, the reputation module 610 can instruct the flagging module 620 to label the reputation of an entity associated with the message as indeterminate.

[0080] In some implementations, the flagging module 620 can instruct the communications interface to transmit a flagging instruction to a message processing system (e.g., communications processing system 500 of FIG. 8). The flagging instruction can instruct the message processing system to flag the message for delayed delivery until a determinate reputation of an entity associated with the message can be identified or the message is otherwise released (e.g., manually released, threshold period of time, etc).

[0081] The flagging module 620 can also instruct a reputation information collection module 630 to collect additional information related to the entity. The reputation information collection module 630 can collect additional reputation information, for example, by querying other reputation modules. In other examples, the reputation information collection module 630 can collect additional reputation information by identifying relationships between the entity and known classified entities. In still further examples, the reputation information collection module 630 can collect additional reputation information by collecting additional messages associated with the entity.

[0082] Upon identifying a determinate reputation associated with the entity, the reputation information collection module can instruct the communications interface 600 to communicate the reputation information to a message processing system (e.g., communications processing system 500 of FIG. 8). In other implementations, the reputation information collection module can communicate the additional reputation information to the reputation module 610. The reputation module 610 can thereby derive a reputation associated with the entity and communicate the reputation to the message processing system through the communications interface 600 when the reputation is determinate. In other implementations, a message processing system can continue to query the reputation server with regard to any messages flagged by the reputation server for queuing by the queuing module.

[0083] FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating an example method for reputation based message processing. At stage 700 a message is received. The message can be received, for example, by a communications interface (e.g., communications interface 525 of FIG. 8). In some implementations, the communications interface can be configured to receive messages in a variety of different formats and/or protocol. For example, the communications interface can be configured to receive protocols including, electronic mail (e.g., internet message access protocol (IMAP), simple mail transfer protocol (SMTP), post office protocols (e.g., POP3), etc.), streaming protocols (e.g., session initiation protocol (SIP), internet relay chat (IRC), instant messaging, videoconferencing, etc.), HTTP, FTP, etc.

[0084] At stage 710 the reputation of an entity associated with the message can be identified. The reputation can be identified, for example, by a message processing module (e.g., message processing module 530 of FIG. 8) in conjunction with a reputation module (e.g., reputation server 545 of FIG. 8). In some implementations, the reputation module and message processing module can both be provided by a communication processing system (e.g., communication processing system 500 of FIG. 8). In other implementations, the reputation module can be separate from the communication processing system. The message processing module, for example, can communicate a query to the reputation module. In some implementations, the query can include the message itself. In other implementations, the message processing module can parse the message and extract the various entities associated with the message and query each of those entities.

[0085] In other implementations, a message profile can be obtained in addition to (or instead of) the entity reputation. The message profile can be derived by comparing the features of the message with features of similar messages. A detailed description of message profiling can be found in U.S. application Ser. No. 11/173,941 (entitled “Message Profiling Systems And Methods”) filed on Jul. 1, 2005, which is incorporated herein by reference. Message profiling can identify legitimate messages versus non-legitimate messages through identification of feature vectors. In some implementations, a message profiler and the message processing module can be provided by a communication processing system (e.g., communication processing system 500 of FIG. 8). In other implementations, the message profiler (e.g., message profiler 550 of FIG. 8) can be separate from the communication processing system.

[0086] At stage 720 the message can be queued based upon the reputation of an entity associated with the message. The message can be queued for example, by a queuing module (e.g., queuing module 535 of FIG. 8). In some implementations, the message can be queued if the reputation information has not reached a threshold volume to provide an accurate reputation judgment. In other implementations, the message can be queued even if a large volume of reputation information has been gathered, but the reputation remains indeterminate. The queuing module can save the message to a processing queue, whereby the entity might not be assumed to be either reputable or non-reputable, but merely placed aside while further information is collected about the entity. This can facilitate collection of information which might be determinate of a reputation for the entity. In some implementations, after the collection of additional information, the message can be released from the queue, even if the reputation is still indeterminate. For example, if the message has been queued for more than an hour without discovery of reputation information which classifies the risk associated with the entity as reputable or non-reputable, the message can be released and processed by a reprocessing module (e.g., reprocessing module 540 or message processing module 530 of FIG. 8).

[0087] In some implementations, message processing module can be biased to assume that a message with an indeterminate reputation is non-reputable. In such implementations, the message can be tested by dedicated interrogation engines operable to determine whether the message includes any known threats. In other implementations, the message processing module can be biased to assume that a message with an indeterminate reputation is reputable. Such messages can be delivered to the recipient (e.g., through an MTA 515 of FIG. 8).

[0088] Similarly, in those implementations which include message profiling, if a message profile is indeterminate, the message can be queued by a queuing module (e.g., queuing module 535 of FIG. 8). In some implementations, the message can be queued if the message profile information has not reached a threshold volume to provide an accurate message profile judgment. In other implementations, the message can be queued even if a large volume of message profile information has been gathered, but the message profile remains indeterminate. The queuing module can save the message to a processing queue, whereby the entity might not be assumed to be either legitimate or non-legitimate, but merely placed aside while further information is collected about the entity. This can facilitate collection of information which might be determinate of a message profile. In some implementations, after the collection of additional information, the message can be released from the queue, even if the message profile is still indeterminate. For example, if the message has been queued for more than an hour without discovery of message profile information which classifies the risk associated with the message, the message can be released and processed by a reprocessing module (e.g., reprocessing module 540 or message processing module 530 of FIG. 8).

[0089] At stage 730, the queued message is processed based upon updated reputation information. The queued message can be processed, for example, by a message processing module (e.g., message processing module 530 of FIG. 8) based upon updated reputation information received, for example, from a reputation module (e.g., reputation server 545 of FIG. 8). In some implementations, if the entity reputation is non-reputable, the message can be tested using dedicated message interrogation engines. The selection of which dedicated interrogation engines to be used on the message can be based upon the particular reputation associated with the message. For example, if the entity associated with the message has a reputation for phishing, the message can be sent to a dedicated phishing interrogation engine operable to specifically test the message for characteristics/features of phishing messages. In other implementations, messages associated with entities having non-reputable reputations can be tested by all available interrogation engines or any subset thereof.

[0090] In those implementations which include message profile information, the queued message can be processed based upon the message profile information. The queued message can be processed, for example, by a message processing module (e.g., message processing module 530 of FIG. 8) based upon updated message profile information received, for example, from a message profiler (e.g., message profiler 550 of FIG. 8). In some implementations, if the message profile is non-legitimate, the message can be tested using dedicated message interrogation engines. The selection of which dedicated interrogation engines to be used on the message can be based upon the particular message profile associated with the message. For example, if the message has a message profile associated with spyware, the message can be sent to a dedicated spyware interrogation engine operable to specifically test the message for characteristics/features of spyware messages. In other implementations, messages associated with negative message profiles can be tested by all available interrogation engines or any subset thereof.

[0091] FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating an example method for reputation based message processing. At stage 800 a message is received. The message can be received, for example, by a communications interface (e.g., communications interface 525 of FIG. 8) from a network (e.g., network 505 of FIG. 8). The message can include a variety of components. The various components can identify entities associated with the message. In some implementations, the entities can include, for example, message originator(s), message recipient(s), transit path associated with the message, and other components of the message, including for example, the body of the message.

[0092] At stage 810, the reputation of an entity associated with the message is identified. The reputation can be identified, for example, by a message processing module (e.g., message processing module 530 of FIG. 8) querying a reputation module (e.g., reputation server 545 of FIG. 8). The reputation can indicate an entity's tendency for engaging in legitimate or non-legitimate activity. The reputation can be calculated as a raw score. In some implementations, the raw score can be communicated to the message processing module. In other implementations, an interpretation or abstraction of the raw score can be communicated to the message processing module. For example, reputation can be visualized as an axis, whereby a negative score can be said to be non-reputable and a positive score can be said to be reputable. However, because the axis is a spectrum, the further away from zero, the stronger a confidence can be given to the reputation classification. Thus, weakly classified reputable or non-reputable scores can be seen as relatively indeterminate in comparison to strongly classified reputable or non-reputable scores. For example, if an entity is scored at 0.1, there might only be a slightly better than even chance that the entity is reputable. However, there is some hesitation to classifying an entity having such a reputation score as reputable given the relatively large risk that the entity is non-reputable. Thus, reputation systems can classify such weakly correlated reputation scores as indeterminate. In those implementations where the raw score is communicated to the message processing module, the message processing module can undergo a similar analysis and translation of the reputation score, for example, based upon local preferences and settings.

[0093] At stage 820, a decision is made whether the reputation of the entity is indeterminate. The decision whether the reputation is indeterminate can be made, for example, by a message processing module (e.g., message processing module 530 of FIG. 8) or by a reputation module (e.g., reputation server 545 of FIG. 8). If the reputation of the entity is not indeterminate, the message is processed at stage 830. For example, if the entity reputation is reputable, the message can be forwarded to the user. If the entity reputation is non-reputable, the message can be tested by one or more dedicated message interrogation engines.

[0094] If the entity reputation is indeterminate, the message is labeled as suspicious at stage 840. The message can be labeled as suspicious, for example, by the message processing module (e.g., message processing module 530 of FIG. 8) in conjunction with a reputation module (e.g., reputation server 545 of FIG. 8). In some implementations, suspicious messages are flagged by the reputation module and/or the message processing module. In other implementations, suspicious messages can be flagged for their mere inclusion in a queue (e.g., a quarantine queue).

[0095] At stage 850, the delivery of the suspicious message is delayed. The delivery of the suspicious message can be delayed, for example, by a queuing module (e.g., queuing module 535 of FIG. 8). In other implementations, the delivery of the suspicious message can be delayed, for example, by storing the suspicious message to a quarantine.

[0096] Delaying the delivery of the message enables additional reputation and/or message profile information to be collected as shown by stage 860. Additional reputation and/or message profile information can be collected by a reputation information collection module (e.g., reputation information collection module 630 of FIG. 9) or by a message profiler (e.g., message profiler 550 of FIG. 8). Additional reputation and/or message profile information can facilitate deriving a determinate reputation and/or message profile associated with the entity associated with the message or with the message itself. In some implementations, the message can be delayed until a determinate reputation and/or message profile is derived. In other implementations, the message can be delayed for a maximum period of time before the message is processed (e.g., delivered, sent for testing, etc.).

[0097] The message is processed at stage 830. The message can be processed, for example, by a message processing module (e.g., message processing module 530 of FIG. 8). If the entity reputation is reputable and the message profile is legitimate, the message can be delivered (e.g., through the MTA 515 of FIG. 8). If the entity is non-reputable or the message profile is non-legitimate, the message can be sent to one or more dedicated interrogation engines. If the entity remains indeterminate and/or the message profile is indeterminate, in some implementations, the message can be sent to the dedicated interrogation engines for further testing. In other implementations, if the entity remains indeterminate and/or the message profile is indeterminate, the message can be delivered (e.g., through MTA 515 of FIG. 8).

[0098] The systems and methods disclosed herein may be implemented on various types of computer architectures, such as for example on different types of networked environments. As an illustration, FIG. 12 depicts a server access architecture within which the disclosed systems and methods may be used (e.g., as shown at 30 in FIG. 12). The architecture in this example includes a corporation's local network 490 and a variety of computer systems residing within the local network 490. These systems can include application servers 420 such as Web servers and e-mail servers, user workstations running local clients 430 such as e-mail readers and Web browsers, and data storage devices 410 such as databases and network connected disks. These systems communicate with each other via a local communication network such as Ethernet 450. Firewall system 440 resides between the local communication network and Internet 460. Connected to the Internet 460 are a host of external servers 470 and external clients 480.

[0099] Local clients 430 can access application servers 420 and shared data storage 410 via the local communication network. External clients 480 can access external application servers 470 via the Internet 460. In instances where a local server 420 or a local client 430 requires access to an external server 470 or where an external client 480 or an external server 470 requires access to a local server 420, electronic communications in the appropriate protocol for a given application server flow through “always open” ports of firewall system 440.

[0100] A system 30 as disclosed herein may be located in a hardware device or on one or more servers connected to the local communication network such as Ethernet 480 and logically interposed between the firewall system 440 and the local servers 420 and clients 430. Application-related electronic communications attempting to enter or leave the local communications network through the firewall system 440 are routed to the system 30.

[0101] In the example of FIG. 12, system 30 could be configured to store and process reputation data about many millions of senders as part of a threat management system. This would allow the threat management system to make better informed decisions about allowing or blocking electronic mail (e-mail).

[0102] System 30 could be used to handle many different types of e-mail and its variety of protocols that are used for e-mail transmission, delivery and processing including SMTP and POP3. These protocols refer, respectively, to standards for communicating e-mail messages between servers and for server-client communication related to e-mail messages. These protocols are defined respectively in particular RFC's (Request for Comments) promulgated by the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force). The SMTP protocol is defined in RFC 821, and the POP3 protocol is defined in RFC 1939.

[0103] Since the inception of these standards, various needs have evolved in the field of e-mail leading to the development of further standards including enhancements or additional protocols. For instance, various enhancements have evolved to the SMTP standards leading to the evolution of extended SMTP. Examples of extensions may be seen in (1) RFC 1869 that defines a framework for extending the SMTP service by defining a means whereby a server SMTP can inform a client SMTP as to the service extensions it supports and in (2) RFC 1891 that defines an extension to the SMTP service, which allows an SMTP client to specify (a) that delivery status notifications (DSNs) should be generated under certain conditions, (b) whether such notifications should return the contents of the message, and (c) additional information, to be returned with a DSN, that allows the sender to identify both the recipient(s) for which the DSN was issued, and the transaction in which the original message was sent. In addition, the IMAP protocol has evolved as an alternative to POP3 that supports more advanced interactions between e-mail servers and clients. This protocol is described in RFC 2060.

[0104] Other communication mechanisms are also widely used over networks. These communication mechanisms include, but are not limited to, Voice Over IP (VoIP) and Instant Messaging. VoIP is used in IP telephony to provide a set of facilities for managing the delivery of voice information using the Internet Protocol (IP). Instant Messaging is a type of communication involving a client which hooks up to an instant messaging service that delivers communications (e.g., conversations) in realtime.

[0105] As the Internet has become more widely used, it has also created new troubles for users. In particular, the amount of spam received by individual users has increased dramatically in the recent past. Spam, as used in this specification, refers to any communication receipt of which is either unsolicited or not desired by its recipient. A system and method can be configured as disclosed herein to address these types of unsolicited or undesired communications. This can be helpful in that e-mail spamming consumes corporate resources and impacts productivity.

[0106] The systems and methods disclosed herein are presented only by way of example and are not meant to limit the scope of the invention. Other variations of the systems and methods described above will be apparent to those skilled in the art and as such are considered to be within the scope of the invention. For example, using the systems and methods of sender classification described herein, a reputation system can be configured for use in training and tuning of external filtering techniques. Such techniques may include Bayesian, Support Vector Machine (SVM) and other statistical content filtering techniques, as well as signature-based techniques such as distributed bulk message identification and message clustering-type techniques. The training strategies for such techniques can require sets of classified legitimate and unwanted transmissions, which can be provided to the trainer by classifying streams of transmissions based on the reputation scores of their senders. Transmissions from senders classified as un-reputable can be provided to the filtering system trainer as unwanted, and the wanted transmissions can be taken from the stream sent by the legitimate senders.

[0107] As an illustration, methods and systems can be configured to perform tuning and training of filtering systems utilizing reputation scores of senders of transmissions in sets of trainable transmissions. At least one characteristic is identified about transmissions from senders. The identifying of at least one characteristic can include extracting unique identifying information about the transmissions (e.g., information about the senders of the transmissions), or authenticating unique identifying information about the transmissions, or combinations thereof. Queries are sent to a reputation system and scores are received representing reputations of the senders. Transmissions are classified into multiple categories based on a range a sender's reputation score falls into. Transmissions and their classification categories are passed on to a trainer of another filtering system to be used for optimization of the filtering system.

[0108] As another example, methods and systems can be configured to perform filtering of groups of transmissions utilizing reputation scores of senders of transmissions. Multiple transmissions can be grouped together based on content similarities or similarities in transmission sender behavior. At least one characteristic can be identified about each transmission in the groupings. The identifying of at least one characteristic can include extracting unique identifying information about the transmission (e.g., information about the sender of a transmission), or authenticating unique identifying information about the transmission, or combinations thereof. A query can be sent to the reputation system and receive a score representing reputation of each sender. Groups of transmissions can be classified based on the percentage of reputable and non-reputable senders in the group.

[0109] As another example of the wide variations of the disclosed systems and methods, different techniques can be used for computation of joint conditional probabilities. More specifically, different mathematical techniques can be used for computing the aggregate non-reputable sender probability, P_NR, and the aggregate reputable sender probability, P_R, for each sender in the reputation space. As an illustration, two techniques are described. Both techniques use P (NR|C_i) and P (R|C_i), the conditional probabilities of non-reputable and reputable behavior, for each testing criterion C_i. The first technique makes the assumption that all testing criteria are independent. The second technique incorporates the assumption that the testing criteria are not independent. Therefore, the second technique is more difficult to carry out, but produces more accurate results.

[0110] 1. Technique for Independent Testing Criteria

[0111] In the independent case, it is assumed that each criterion C_i is independent of all other criteria. The probability that the sender is non-reputable, P_NR, is calculated using the following formula:

$P_{\mathrm{NR}}=\frac{\prod P\left(\mathrm{NR}C_j\right)}{\prod P\left(\mathrm{NR}C_j\right)+\prod \left(1-P\left(\mathrm{NR}C_j\right)\right)}$

where j ranges over all criteria that apply to the sender in question. Similarly, the probability that the sender is a reputable sender, P_R, is calculated using the following formula:

$P_R=\frac{\prod P\left(RC_j\right)}{\prod P\left(RC_j\right)+\prod \left(1-P\left(RC_j\right)\right)}$

where j ranges over all criteria that apply to the sender in question.

[0112] 2. Technique for Non-Independent Testing Criteria In the dependent case, it is assumed that each criterion C_i is not independent of all other criteria, so the analysis must take into account “non-linear” interactions between criteria within their joint probability distribution. To find the correct values for P_NR and P_R for a given sender, a table is constructed to represent the entire joint probability distribution. Below is a sample table for a joint distribution of four qualities/criteria.

Case	C1	C2	C3	C4	PNR	PR
1	N	N	N	N	N/A	N/A
2	N	N	N	Y	P(NR|C4)	P(R|C4)
3	N	N	Y	N	P(NR|C3)	P(R|C3)
4	N	N	Y	Y	P(NR|C3, C4)	P(R|C3, C4)
5	N	Y	N	N	P(NR|C2)	P(R|C2)
6	N	Y	N	Y	P(NR|C2, C4)	P(R|C2, C4)
7	N	Y	Y	N	P(NR|C2, C3)	P(R|C2, C3)
8	N	Y	Y	Y	P(NR|C2, C3, C4)	P(R|C2, C3, C4)
9	Y	N	N	N	P(NR|C1)	P(R|C1)
10	Y	N	N	Y	P(NR|C1, C4)	P(R|C1, C4)
11	Y	N	Y	N	P(NR|C1, C3)	P(R|C1, C3)
12	Y	N	Y	Y	P(NR|C1, C3, C4)	P(R|C1, C3, C4)
13	Y	Y	N	N	P(NRC1, C2)	P(R|C1, C2)
14	Y	Y	N	Y	P(NR|C1, C2, C4)	P(R|C1, C2, C4)
15	Y	Y	Y	N	P(NR|C1, C2, C3)	P(R|C1, C2, C3)
16	Y	Y	Y	Y	P(NR|C1, C2, C3,	P(R|C1, C2, C3, C4)
					C4)

For a joint distribution of M criteria, there exist (2^M−1) distinct cases within the joint probability distribution. Each case constitutes a particular combination of characteristics. The probability that the sender is non-reputable, P_NR, is estimated for each case using the following technique. For each one of the (2^M−1) cases, a random sample of N senders is gathered that exhibit the combination of characteristics described by that case. (For this purposes, N=30 is a large enough sample). Each sender is sorted into one of the following sets: reputable (R), non-reputable (NR) or unknown (U). NR is the number of sender in the sample that are reputable senders, N_NR is the number of senders that are non-reputable senders, etc. Then, P_NR and P_R is estimated using the formulas:

$P_{\mathrm{NR}}=\frac{N_{\mathrm{NR}}}{N}$ $P_R=\frac{N_R}{N}$

The sampling of the IP addresses is repeated periodically (e.g., daily, weekly, monthly) to update the joint probability distribution.

[0113] It is further noted that the systems and methods disclosed herein may use articles of manufacture having data/digital signals conveyed via networks (e.g., local area network, wide area network, internet, etc.), fiber optic medium, carrier waves, wireless networks, etc. for communication with one or more data processing devices. The data/digital signals can carry any or all of the data disclosed herein that is provided to or from a device.

[0114] Additionally, the methods and systems described herein may be implemented on many different types of processing devices by program code comprising program instructions that are executable by one or more processors. The software program instructions may include source code, object code, machine code, or any other stored data that is operable to cause a processing system to perform methods described herein.

[0115] The systems' and methods' data (e.g., associations, mappings, etc.) may be stored and implemented in one or more different types of computer-implemented ways, such as different types of storage devices and programming constructs (e.g., data stores, RAM, ROM, Flash memory, flat files, databases, programming data structures, programming variables, IF-THEN (or similar type) statement constructs, etc.). It is noted that data structures describe formats for use in organizing and storing data in databases, programs, memory, or other computer-readable media for use by a computer program.

[0116] The systems and methods may be provided on many different types of computer-readable media including computer storage mechanisms (e.g., CD-ROM, diskette, RAM, flash memory, computer's hard drive, etc.) that contain instructions for use in execution by a processor to perform the methods' operations and implement the systems described herein.

[0117] The computer components, software modules, functions and data structures described herein may be connected directly or indirectly to each other in order to allow the flow of data needed for their operations. It is also noted that software instructions or a module can be implemented for example as a subroutine unit of code, or as a software function unit of code, or as an object (as in an object-oriented paradigm), or as an applet, or in a computer script language, or as another type of computer code or firmware. The software components and/or functionality may be located on a single device or distributed across multiple devices depending upon the situation at hand.

[0118] It should be understood that as used in the description herein and throughout the claims that follow, the meaning of “a,” “an,” and “the” includes plural reference unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. Also, as used in the description herein and throughout the claims that follow, the meaning of “in” includes “in” and “on” unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. Finally, as used in the description herein and throughout the claims that follow, the meanings of “and” and “or” include both the conjunctive and disjunctive and may be used interchangeably unless the context clearly dictates otherwise; the phrase “exclusive or” may be used to indicate situation where only the disjunctive meaning may apply.