Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Vinh Trinh

Krishna Kumar Parthasarathy

Hao Zhang

Christopher Scott Dickens

George Evangelos Roussos

Salil Kapoor

Syed Salah Ahmed

Jitender Bisht

Bhaswar Banerjee

Keyan Raahemifar

Zhi Wang

Christopher S Dickens

An enhanced email service that mitigates drawbacks of conventional email services by enabling transmission of encrypted content to a recipient regardless of the recipient having a prior relationship with the sender or having credentials issued from a certificate authority. A method is provided for receiving encrypted content and generating a message includes both the encrypted content as an attachment and a link to enable access to the encrypted content. The method may include transmitting the message to an intended recipient's mailbox while also storing the message in another mailbox to provide for subsequent decryption of the encrypted content. The link may provide the intended recipient of the message with access to the encrypted content in various ways depending on, for example, whether the recipient is viewing the message through a webmail browser or through a local mail client that is compatible with the enhanced email service.

Enhanced email service

An enhanced email service that mitigates drawbacks of conventional email services by enabling transmission of encrypted content to a recipient regardless of the recipient having a prior relationship with the sender or having credentials issued from a certificate authority. A method is provided for receiving encrypted content and generating a message includes both the encrypted content as an attachment and a link to enable decrypted access to the decrypted content. The method may include transmitting the message to an intended recipient's mailbox while also storing the message in an organizational mailbox to provide for subsequent decryption of the encrypted content. The link may provide the intended recipient of the message with decrypted access to the encrypted content in various ways depending on, for example, whether the recipient is viewing the message through a webmail browser or through a local mail client that is compatible with the enhanced email service.

The techniques described herein enable a user that sends an email message that includes encrypted content to define a time period during which a recipient of the encrypted content has decrypted access rights. To effectively define the time period, the user can set a time at which the decrypted access rights for the recipient expire. The time occurs after a time at which the email message is sent to the recipient. Upon expiration of the time period, the decrypted access rights to the encrypted content is revoked for the recipient of the email message, thereby providing a proactive element of security for confidential and/or sensitive information. Further, the techniques enable a user to revoke decrypted access rights to the encrypted content for a recipients at any given time after the email message has already been sent, thereby adding a reactive element of security for confidential and/or sensitive information.

Managing decrypted access rights to encrypted content in a message

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Redmond, WA, United States of America

Vinh Trinh