Patent ID: 8301712
Filing Date: 2012-10-30
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method for controlling electronic mail flood attacks comprising: when an email request originated from a suspicious address class contained in a set of suspicious address classes, wherein the address class comprises a collection of at least one IP address, determining a count of active connections originating from the suspicious address class, determining a first interval of time since the count of connections has reached the predetermined number, and determining a second interval of time since a temporary failure was last issued to an email message originating from the suspicious address class; and when at least one of a set of at least one failure criteria is met, issuing a temporary failure message to the email request, wherein the set of at least one failure criteria comprises a first criterion which is met when the count of active connections reaches a predetermined maximum number, a second criterion which is met when the first interval is less than a first predetermined interval of time, and a third criterion which is met when the second interval is less than a second predetermined interval of time.