Patent ID: 7178724

Claim:
A smart card system for transmitting and receiving secure e-mails comprising: a smart card device reader adapted to be connected to a host having a client e-mail program for transmitting and/or receiving e-mails to and/or from an e-mail server; a smart card device received within the smart card device reader and comprising, a card body; and an integrated circuit carried by the card body and comprising a memory for storing a set of instructions relating to initiating and completing smart card transactions between the smart card device and a port of the host and for storing both private and public keys for an encryption algorithm, and a processor operative for communicating with the host via the smart card reader and operative for transferring e-mails to and/or from the client e-mail program and the e-mail server via the smart card device while decrypting and encrypting any transmitted and/or received e-mails within the smart card device, wherein said memory is operative for storing a smart card device IP address for an email server, and a Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) outgoing parameter is set to the smart card device IP address such that the smart card device is operative as a gateway from a client email program.