JPH11252158A - E-mail information management method and apparatus, and recording medium recording e-mail information management processing program - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [PROBLEMS] To easily extract information necessary for transmission / reception such as an e-mail address, and to check for computer viruses and the like before reaching a recipient. An e-mail information transmitted and received is analyzed to detect items constituting the e-mail information (step s1), and a plurality of users who commonly use the e-mail server from the items constituting the e-mail information are analyzed. Extracts the e-mail addresses and names of the sender and receiver as information that can be used in common, and creates a database (step s2).
In addition, for the items (the body part and the attached sentence part) constituting the e-mail information, a process corresponding to the item such as virus check is performed (steps s3 and s4), and if the e-mail information is appropriate, it is deleted. The e-mail is sent to the e-mail server (steps s5 and s6), and if inappropriate, the e-mail information is deleted (steps s5 and s7).

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic mail information management method and apparatus for automatically managing electronic mail information on a network by a system, and a recording medium on which an electronic mail information management processing program is recorded.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional electronic mail system has a schematic configuration as shown in FIG. In such a system, for example, consider a case where a user b1 of Company B sends e-mail information to a user a1 of Company A.

In this case, a user b1 is a client computer (hereinafter referred to as a personal computer) PC managed by the user b1.
The e-mail information is transmitted by activating the e-mail software S1 using the e-mail server 1, and the transmitted e-mail information is transmitted from the e-mail server B1 in FIG.
In the example, the information is stored in the e-mail server A1 of the company A through the public network 1. Then, the user a1 activates the e-mail software S11 in the personal computer PC11 managed by the user a1 and performs an operation to retrieve the contents of the e-mail server A1, so that the e-mail information of the user b1 is transmitted to the personal computer PC11 of the user a1. Is entered.

As described above, when the user a1 receives the e-mail information, the e-mail information in the e-mail server A1 of the company A is deleted or, even if the e-mail information is stored, the personal computer managed by the user a1. The e-mail software S11 in the PC 11 stores the data in a storage unit in the personal computer PC11.

[0005] As described above, in the conventional e-mail system, e-mail information addressed to a certain user is managed in a personal computer managed by the user, and is used by other users. This is not usually done.

However, there is a case where another user a2 using the same e-mail server A1 as the user a1 sends an e-mail to the user b1 of the company B. At this time, the user a2 has not transmitted and received the user b1 in the past,
Assuming that the user does not know information necessary for communication such as the e-mail address of the user b1, the user a2 needs to start by examining all the information. In such a case,
If information necessary for communication, such as the e-mail address of the user b1 that the user a1 has as data, can be used by other users as it is, the procedure is simplified.

[0007]

However, in the conventional e-mail system, various information possessed by each user is
Since it is stored in the personal computer managed by the user, it is not usually used by other users. In the case of the above example, after all, the user a2 receives the e-mail of the user b1 who is the recipient. It was necessary to check all the information necessary for communication, such as the address, and perform an operation such as inputting the information.

[0008] E-mail information sent via a public network may be affected by a computer virus, or may not be distributed to recipients.

However, in the conventional e-mail system,
This kind of check is sent to the recipient without any action, so measures against computer viruses etc.
It is necessary to apply to the personal computer managed by each user, and even if the content does not want to be distributed to the recipient, the processing must be performed by the user who received the e-mail information. .

Accordingly, the present invention provides a system in which transmitted and received e-mail information is automatically analyzed by a system, and necessary information is stored in a database based on the analysis result.
The information required for communication can be shared by multiple users using the same e-mail server, and the contents of the e-mail information can be checked so that countermeasures against computer viruses etc. can be automatically performed without the user being aware of it. It is intended to be performed on a regular basis.

[0011]

In order to achieve the above object, an electronic mail information management method according to the present invention manages electronic mail information transmitted and received between at least two electronic mail servers. In the e-mail information management method, when transmitting or receiving e-mail information to be transmitted / received, the e-mail information is analyzed to detect the items constituting the e-mail information, and from the items constituting the e-mail information, Extracting information that can be commonly used by a plurality of users who commonly use a certain e-mail server, saves the information so that it can be accessed from each computer managed by each user who commonly uses the e-mail server, and stores the e-mail Among the items that make up the information, predetermined items are processed according to the items. There.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, the information which can be commonly used by a user who commonly uses the certain e-mail server includes an e-mail address of at least one of a sender and a receiver, and an e-mail address of the e-mail address. Including the name, we make this information into a database.

[0013] Further, in the invention according to claim 3, the processing according to claim 1 or 2 is performed on a predetermined item of the items constituting the e-mail information in accordance with the item. The computer performs at least one of a check to determine whether a computer virus exists in the specified item and a content check of the predetermined item to determine whether to distribute the e-mail information to the recipient. If it is determined to be appropriate, send the e-mail information to the receiving e-mail server,
If a computer virus is present, remove the effects of the computer virus and send it to the receiving e-mail server.If the computer virus cannot be removed, or the contents of the predetermined item should be distributed to the recipient If it is determined that the content is not the same, the e-mail is deleted.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an electronic mail information management apparatus for managing electronic mail information transmitted and received between at least two electronic mail servers. Analyzing the mail information, detecting the items constituting the e-mail information, extracting information commonly available to a plurality of users who commonly use a certain e-mail server from the items constituting the e-mail information, An e-mail information analyzing means for performing a process corresponding to a predetermined item among the items constituting the e-mail information, and the certain e-mail server extracted by the e-mail information analyzing means The information that can be used in common by multiple users who share the information is managed by each computer managed by these users. It has a configuration having a data storage means for storing accessibly.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the fourth aspect, the information commonly available to a user who commonly uses the electronic mail server, which is obtained by the electronic mail information analyzing means, is at least one of a sender and a receiver. It is an e-mail address and its name, and this information is stored in a database.

Further, the invention according to claim 6 is the processing according to claim 4 or 5, wherein, among the items constituting the e-mail information performed by the e-mail information analyzing means, the processing is performed for each predetermined item according to the item. At least one of checking whether a computer virus is present in the predetermined item and checking the content of the predetermined item in order to determine whether to distribute the e-mail information to a recipient. If the check result is determined to be appropriate, the e-mail information is sent to the e-mail server on the receiving side, and if a computer virus is present, after removing the influence of the computer virus, the e-mail information is sent to the receiving side. If the computer virus cannot be removed, or the contents of the above-mentioned predetermined items If it is determined that the content should not be distributed to the recipient, so that deletes the e-mail.

[0017] Further, a recording medium on which the electronic mail information management processing program according to claim 7 is recorded has at least two media.
A recording medium storing an electronic mail information management processing program for managing electronic mail information transmitted and received between two electronic mail servers, wherein the processing program transmits and receives electronic mail information when the electronic mail information is transmitted or received. A procedure for analyzing the mail information to detect an item constituting the e-mail information, and extracting, from the items constituting the e-mail information, information that can be commonly used by a plurality of users who commonly use a certain e-mail server A procedure for storing the extracted information in a manner accessible from each computer managed by each user who commonly uses the e-mail server, and a predetermined procedure among items constituting the e-mail information. And performing a process corresponding to the selected item.

The present invention analyzes transmitted / received e-mail information, detects items constituting the e-mail information, and detects a plurality of users who commonly use the e-mail server from the items constituting the e-mail information. Information that can be used in common is extracted and stored in a database that these users can access. For example, even if the person trying to send an e-mail is an unknown person who has never The information necessary for transmission and reception, such as the e-mail address of the other party, can be easily retrieved from the database and used, eliminating the need to search for various information required for transmission and reception, and increasing the efficiency of processing for transmission and reception. I can do it.

The information to be stored in the database includes information such as the sender's e-mail address and sender name and the receiver's e-mail address and receiver name existing in the header of the e-mail information. As described above, a user using the same e-mail server can easily retrieve and use an e-mail address used in the past by another user as described above, and send an e-mail. Processing efficiency can be improved. Furthermore, by accumulating such information over a long period of time, a large number of e-mail addresses and their names of senders, and addresses and names of recipients are accumulated.
Address book-like data is automatically created without any awareness of individual users, and many users can use the data in common. This is extremely convenient.

In addition, according to the present invention, a predetermined item among the items constituting the sent e-mail information is processed according to the item. According to the present invention, it is possible for the system to automatically perform the processing independently performed by the user without any consideration. Specifically, it checks whether the body part or attached text part of the e-mail information has been infected by a computer virus, and checks the contents of the e-mail information. After removing the effects of the computer virus, send to the receiving e-mail server,
If the computer virus cannot be removed, or if it is determined that the contents of the e-mail information should not be distributed to the recipient, the e-mail is deleted. The system can automatically perform the processing for the computer virus that should be handled, the check of the content of the e-mail information, and the processing for the information before reaching the recipient.

[0021]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows the configuration of an e-mail system to which the present invention is applied. Although the configuration is substantially the same as that of FIG. 4, the configuration of FIG. 1 is transmitted and received between e-mail servers. An electronic mail information analyzing unit 11 for analyzing electronic mail information and a database unit 12 for storing necessary information (details will be described later) of the information analyzed by the electronic mail information analyzing unit 11. Is different from FIG. The same parts as those in FIG. 4 are denoted by the same reference numerals. Note that FIG. 1 shows an example in which the e-mail information analysis unit 11 and the database unit 12 are provided only on the company A side. Of course, these may also be provided on the company B side, but here, for the sake of simplicity, only the company A side will be considered.

The electronic mail information analyzer 11 is provided on the public network 1 side of the electronic mail server A1, analyzes electronic mail information transmitted and received, extracts necessary information (to be described in detail later), and extracts the extracted information. In addition to storing the obtained information in the database unit 12 and performing predetermined processing (details will be described later) on the e-mail information, in this embodiment, another e-mail server (in this case, An example of processing e-mail information sent from the e-mail server B1), that is, processing at the time of receiving e-mail information will be described.

The information stored in the database unit 12 by the electronic mail information analyzing unit 11 includes users a1, a2, a3, who use the electronic mail server A1 in common.
.. Managed by the personal computers PC11 and PC1
2, PC13,..., And can be accessed by activating the respective e-mail software S11, S12, S13.

By the way, as shown in FIG. 2, the e-mail information generally includes a header section 21, a body section 22, an attached sentence section 23 and the like. The header section 21 includes information such as the sender's name and e-mail address, the recipient's name and e-mail address, transmission path information, and title. In addition, the text part 22 is generally a text sentence, and the attached text part 23 is a content based on a text sentence or binary information.

Next, the processing procedure of the present invention will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. Now, suppose that the user b1 of Company B has transmitted an e-mail to the user a1 of Company A. The e-mail is sent by the e-mail server B1 of the company B to the e-mail server A1 of the company A via the public network 1, but enters the e-mail information analysis unit 11 before entering the e-mail server A1.

The e-mail information analysis unit 11 first decomposes the received e-mail information into items (step s).
1). That is, as shown in FIG. 2, the e-mail information is composed of a plurality of items such as a header part 21, a body part 22, and an attached sentence part 23. The text part 22 and the attached text part 23 are divided.

Then, as necessary information from the header section 21, here, the e-mail address and name of the sender and the e-mail address and name of the receiver are extracted and stored in the database section 12 (step s2). ). In addition,
As described above, the header section 21 includes information such as a sender's name and e-mail address, a receiver's name and e-mail address, transmission path information, and a title. The protocol for sending and receiving e-mails, such as xx, xx is the name of the sender, to: △△△, if △△△ is the name of the recipient (S
MTP: Simple Mail Transfer Protocol).

Thereafter, a predetermined process is performed on the body part 22 (step s3). Specifically, the text part 22
Is checked to see if it is infected by a computer virus. In addition, various checks can be performed as needed. For example, the content of the text part 22 is checked, and it is determined whether or not the content of the text part 22 is a job content. If it is the content, it can be discovered. In this method, the sentence is analyzed by performing a morphological analysis on the sentence and performing word extraction, and the content of the body part 22 can be determined based on the analysis result.

If it is determined that the computer virus is involved, a process for removing it is performed. However, it may not be possible to remove computer viruses.

Next, a predetermined process is performed on the attached sentence 23 (step s4). Specifically, the text part 2
Similar to 2, the attached text is checked to see if it is infected by a computer virus, and if it is determined that it is infected by a computer virus, the processing to remove it is performed. May not be removed.

After performing the above steps s1 to s4, it is determined whether or not to delete the received e-mail information (step s5). Specifically, the main body part 22 and the attached sentence part 23 are checked whether or not they are infected by a computer virus, and the main body part 22 and the attached sentence part 23 are checked.
If it is determined that both are not affected by the computer virus, or if the computer virus can be removed even if the computer virus is involved, the e-mail information is sent to the e-mail server A1 (step s6).

On the other hand, if it is determined that at least one of the body part 22 and the attached sentence part 23 has been affected by a computer virus, and the effect of the computer virus cannot be removed, the e-mail information is deleted (step S1). s7).

In addition to the computer virus check, as described above, for example, when a process of checking whether or not the content is a job is performed at the same time, the content is completely unrelated to the job. If it is determined that it is not appropriate to distribute the e-mail information to the recipient, the e-mail information is deleted.

As described above, when it is determined that distribution to the recipient is not appropriate, the provision of a process for deleting the distribution is important in the case where e-mails will spread to ordinary households in the future. It becomes something. This is because, for example, it is considered that e-mails sent to minors as direct mails include those that are against public order and morals. As described above, the content that is contrary to public order and morals can be determined to some extent, for example, by performing morphological analysis on the content, so that it is possible to check whether the content should not be distributed to the recipient.

By performing the above-described steps s1 to s7, first, the e-mail address and name of the sender and the e-mail address and name of the receiver are stored in the database unit 12, In
The e-mail addresses and names of a large number of senders and recipients will be stored, and address book-like data will be created.

Therefore, for example, user a2 of company A
However, when trying to send an e-mail to the user b1 of the company B, the user a2 has never transmitted and received the e-mail with the user b1 in the past, and has the e-mail address of the user b2 in the personal computer managed by himself. Even if it is not, the user b
The user can take out the e-mail address and use it.

Further, the electronic mail information sent from the sender is checked before being distributed to the receiver whether or not it is infected by a computer virus, and the contents thereof are checked. Then, the body part 21 and the attached sentence part 2
2 is determined to be infected by a computer virus, a process for removing the effect is performed. If the effect is removed, the e-mail is sent to the e-mail server A1.
If the influence of the computer virus cannot be removed, the e-mail is deleted. If it is determined that the contents of the e-mail should not be distributed to the recipient, the e-mail is determined to be unnecessary and the e-mail is deleted.

As described above, according to the embodiment of the present invention, various pieces of information necessary for sending and receiving e-mails, such as e-mail addresses managed by individual users, are used by the same e-mail server. A database that can be commonly used by a plurality of users can be created, and furthermore, the creation of the database is automatically performed by the system without any awareness of the individual users. As a result, if the data is stored in the database unit 12, it is possible to immediately access the database unit 12 even with an e-mail address of an unknown user who has not transmitted or transmitted in the past and has no data. Can be taken out. When storing the e-mail address and the name of the sender or the recipient in the database unit 12, for example, when data with the same address and a different name is newly extracted, even if the name is different, The data of the same address already stored is rewritten with new data. If data with the same name but different addresses is extracted, new data is also stored while leaving the data already stored.

In the past, individual countermeasures such as computer virus check and content check of e-mail information, which were individually dealt with by each user, are automatically performed without the user being conscious of it. The burden of processing to be performed can be greatly reduced.

The present invention is not limited to the embodiment described above, but can be variously modified without departing from the gist of the present invention. For example, the data stored in the database unit 12 is not limited to the e-mail addresses and the names of the sender and the receiver, but may be other data as long as the data can be used in common by a plurality of users. When creating a database of e-mail addresses and their names, the e-mail addresses and names of both the sender and the recipient, such as the e-mail address and name of the sender and the e-mail address and name of the recipient, are used. By importing, more e-mail addresses and names can be stored in a database, but this is done by making the e-mail addresses and names of only the sender, not both the sender and the recipient, into a database. Is also good.

In the above embodiment, when receiving the sent e-mail information, necessary information is made into a database, and the items constituting the e-mail information correspond to the items. Although processing is performed, such processing can also be performed when an electronic mail is transmitted.

Further, according to the present invention, the contents of checks on the main body and the attached document are not limited to the computer virus check described in the above-described embodiment and various checks other than whether or not the document is related to work. Is possible,
It is possible to perform processing on the check result.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, as shown in FIG. 1, an example in which electronic mail is transmitted and received between two different companies connected via a public network has been described. The present invention can be similarly implemented in a system in which a plurality of e-mail servers are installed in a certain company or organization and are connected to each other via an internal network.

The processing program for managing e-mail according to the present invention described above can be recorded on a recording medium such as a floppy disk, an optical disk, or a hard disk. The present invention also includes the recording medium. Further, the processing program may be obtained from a network.

[0046]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Analyze transmitted and received e-mail information, detect items that make up the e-mail information, and extract and save information that can be shared by users who use the e-mail server from the items that make up the e-mail information For example, even if the person sending the e-mail is an unknown person who has never sent / received in the past, the information necessary for sending / receiving such as the e-mail address of the other person can be easily extracted from the database. Since it can be used, the trouble of checking various information necessary for transmission and reception can be omitted, and the efficiency of processing for transmission and reception can be improved. In addition,
The information to be stored in the database includes the sender's e-mail address and sender name and the receiver's e-mail address and receiver name in the header of the e-mail information. Over a long period of time, the sender's e-mail address and its name, the recipient's address and its name, etc. will be accumulated in large numbers, and individual users will automatically This makes it possible to create address book-like data. Since such data can be commonly used by many users, it is extremely convenient.

In addition, according to the present invention, among the items constituting the sent e-mail information, a predetermined item is subjected to a process corresponding to the item. The system can automatically perform the processing independently without the individual user being conscious of anything. Specifically, it checks whether the body part or attached text part of the e-mail information has been infected by a computer virus, and checks the contents of the e-mail information. Is sent to the receiving e-mail server after removing the effects of the computer virus, and if the computer virus cannot be removed, or the content of the e-mail information is determined to be content that should not be distributed to the recipient In such a case, the e-mail is deleted, so the process for the computer virus, the content of the e-mail information, and the process for the e-mail information that the recipient should respond to individually should be performed before the recipient reaches the recipient. Automatically on the system side.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram illustrating an embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of an electronic mail system to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a view showing a typical data configuration example of electronic mail information.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure according to the embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic configuration diagram of a conventional electronic mail system.

[Explanation of symbols]

 11 E-mail information analysis section 12 Database section 21 Header section 22 Text section 23 Attached text section A1, B1 E-mail server

──────────────────────────────────────────────────の Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification code FI G06F 13/00 351 G06F 15/20 596A 17/21 15/40 310C 17/30

Claims (7)

[Claims] An electronic mail information management method for managing electronic mail information transmitted and received between at least two electronic mail servers, comprising:
The e-mail information is analyzed to detect items that constitute the e-mail information, and information that can be commonly used by a plurality of users who commonly use a certain e-mail server is extracted from the items that constitute the e-mail information. In addition, the electronic mail server is stored in an accessible manner from each computer managed by each user who commonly uses the electronic mail server, and a predetermined item among the items constituting the electronic mail information is determined according to the item. An e-mail information management method comprising performing processing. 2. The information commonly available to a user who commonly uses the certain e-mail server includes an e-mail address and a name of at least one of a sender and a receiver. 1. The e-mail information management method according to 1. 3. A process for performing a predetermined item in the items constituting the e-mail information in accordance with the item includes checking whether or not a computer virus exists in the predetermined item. In order to determine whether or not the e-mail information should be distributed to the recipient, at least one of the contents check of the predetermined item is performed, and when it is determined that the check result is appropriate, the e-mail information is Send to the receiving e-mail server, if there is a computer virus, after removing the effects of the computer virus, send to the receiving e-mail server, if the computer virus can not be removed, or the predetermined If it is determined that the content of the item should not be distributed to the recipient, delete the e-mail Claim 2 or 3 e-mail information management method wherein Rukoto. 4. An electronic mail information management device for managing electronic mail information transmitted and received between at least two electronic mail servers, wherein the electronic mail information transmitted and received is analyzed to detect items constituting the electronic mail information. Then, information that can be commonly used by a plurality of users who commonly use a certain e-mail server is extracted from the items constituting the e-mail information, and a predetermined item among the items constituting the e-mail information E-mail information analyzing means for performing a process corresponding to the item, and information which can be commonly used by a plurality of users who commonly use the certain e-mail server extracted by the e-mail information analyzing means. And data storage means for storing the data so that it can be accessed from each computer managed by each of the data storage devices. An e-mail information management device, characterized in that: 5. The information which can be commonly used by a user who commonly uses the e-mail server, which is retrieved by the e-mail information analysis means, includes an e-mail address and a name of at least one of a sender and a receiver. The electronic mail information management device according to claim 4, wherein: 6. The processing performed by the electronic mail information analysis means and performed according to each predetermined item among the items constituting the electronic mail information, wherein the predetermined item contains a computer virus. A check as to whether the e-mail information should be distributed to the recipient or not, and at least one of the contents check of the predetermined item is performed, and it is determined that the check result is appropriate. Sends the e-mail information to the e-mail server on the receiving side and, if a computer virus is present, removes the effects of the computer virus and then sends the e-mail information to the e-mail server on the receiving side. Or, it was determined that the content of the predetermined item should not be distributed to the recipient If the e-mail information management apparatus according to claim 4 or 5, wherein it deletes the e-mail. 7. A recording medium storing an electronic mail information management processing program for managing electronic mail information transmitted and received between at least two electronic mail servers, the processing program comprising: a transmission medium for transmitting and receiving electronic mail information; When or when receiving,
A procedure for analyzing the e-mail information to detect items constituting the e-mail information, and information which can be commonly used by a plurality of users who commonly use a certain e-mail server from the items constituting the e-mail information And a procedure for storing the retrieved information in an accessible manner from each computer managed by each user who commonly uses the e-mail server. Of the items constituting the e-mail information, A procedure for performing processing corresponding to a predetermined item according to the item; and a recording medium recording an electronic mail information management processing program.