Methods, systems and devices to mitigate the effects of side effect urls in legitimate and phishing electronic messages

Abstract

A computer-implemented method may comprise receiving an electronic message (such as a legitimate email or malicious phishing email, for example) over a computer network, the electronic message containing a uniform resource locator (URL). The URL in the received electronic message may be parsed and one or more original parameter may be identified therein. The type of the identified original parameter(s) may be determined. The identified original parameter(s) may then be transformed according to a parameter transformation rules, selected according to the determined type. to generate transformed parameter(s). The URL may then be reassembled by substituting the transformed parameter(s) for the original parameter(s). The website pointed to by the reassembled URL may then be accessed, over the computer network, using the transformed parameter(s) only if the reassembled URL meets a predetermined minimum criterion.