Patent ID: 7657838

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for preventing execution of executable programs that are embedded in HTML-formatted email messages, the computer-implemented method comprising: (A) receiving, at a programmable device, a first, hypertext markup language (HTML) formatted email message, the first, HTML-formatted email message having HTML tags; (B) receiving, at the programmable device, an indication to display the received first, HTML-formatted email message, wherein the indication includes user input to highlight the first HTML-formatted email message in a list of email messages by hovering a cursor over the first, HTML formatted email message; (C) generating, at the programmable device, a second, modified email message by: (C1) searching, at the programmable device, in response to receiving the user input to highlight the first HTML-formatted email message, the first, HTML-formatted email message to find a predetermined HTML tag, the predetermined HTML tag being selected from the group consisting of: (C1a) input; (C1b) VBScript; (C1c) JScript; (C1d) applet; and (C1e) object; (C2) responsive to finding the predetermined HTML tag, generating, at the programmable device, the second, modified email message from the first, HTML-formatted email message without the found predetermined HTML tag; (D) displaying the second, modified email message: and (E) forwarding the first email message to a forwarding recipient, in response to a user selection to forward the displayed second, modified email message, wherein the entire contents of the first, HTML formatted email message are left unaltered, (F) wherein the first, HTML formatted email message is different than the second, modified email message.