Patent ID: 8037144

Claim:
A network traffic filtering system for filtering a flow of electronic messages across a computer network, the system comprising: one or more computing devices; a centralized server installed on the one or more computing devices and having an engine for executing instructions stored in a memory of the one or more computing devices, the execution of the instructions configured to generate a source reputation profile based on reputation data associated with a source IP address, wherein the reputation data is received from a centralized data source comprising an electronic message traffic monitoring system that monitors electronic messages after being sent from a sending server at the source IP address and before being received by a targeted receiving server or at any gateway to a local network including a targeted receiving server, and wherein the reputation data comprises metadata derived by the electronic message traffic monitoring system from the monitoring of messages sent from the source IP address; a profile database connected to the centralized server for storing the reputation data, the centralized server and profile database external to targeted receiving servers or any gateway to a local network including a targeted receiving server; and wherein the engine is further configured to provide the source reputation profile to an external local system having at least one targeted receiving mail server for filtering incoming electronic messages by the at least one targeted receiving mail server, or other device within a gateway to a local network having the external local system, based on the provided source reputation profile before the incoming electronic messages can reach an intended recipient.