Patent ID: 8112482

Claim:
A method of securing an electronic message at an intermediary device, comprising: the intermediary device receiving an original message addressed to a recipient; the intermediary device creating a modified message by removing at least a portion of the original message, storing the removed portion of the original message, and inserting a resource tag in the modified message; the intermediary device sending the modified message, with the inserted resource tag, to the recipient; the intermediary device receiving, from a recipient of the modified message, a resource request for content referred to by the resource tag; and the intermediary device identifying the recipient of the modified message based on a destination Internet Protocol (IP) address to which the recipient sent the resource request, wherein if the destination IP address is a private IP address, the intermediary device (i) authorizes the identified recipient of the modified message, and (ii) sends the removed portion of the original message to the identified recipient of the modified message, and wherein if the destination IP address is a public IP address, the intermediary device (i) does not authorize the identified recipient of the modified message, (ii) does not send the removed portion of the original message to the identified recipient of the modified message, and (iii) sends an alert.