Patent ID: 8533792

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving, at an e-mail server, a Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) message that includes header-level information that identifies the SMTP message as a message relating to e-mail based user authentication, wherein the SMTP message includes an authentication ticket from a third-party service provider, and wherein the authentication ticket is received in response to an access request relating to resources of the third-party service provider; processing, at the e-mail server, the header-level information to give the message relating to e-mail based user authentication additional priority compared to an e-mail message received at the e-mail server, to cause the authentication ticket to be acted upon prior to an end of an expiration period associated with the authentication ticket; and forwarding the authentication ticket from the e-mail server to a user name associated with an e-mail address included in the access request, the authentication ticket including an identification of the third-party service provider that is to be presented to a user via a user interface after the user has logged into an e-mail account associated with the e-mail address via the e-mail server, wherein the user interface allows the user to either grant permission to send the authentication ticket to the third-party service provider or deny permission to send the authentication ticket to the third-party service provider.