Patent ID: 8130957

Claim:
In an electronic messaging system operable to send and receive electronic messages over a wired local area network and also operable to redirect electronic messages over a wireless network to a wireless device, a method of encrypting electronic messages comprising: an enterprise server receiving an electronic message from an electronic messaging server, wherein the electronic message is protected by a first encryption algorithm and addressed to a message recipient in the wired local area network, the message recipient having an associated wireless device operable in the wireless network, the enterprise server having wireless device identification information of the associated wireless device stored therein for use in communicating with the wireless device using a higher-level connection with a wireless gateway that provides an interface with the wireless network; determining that the electronic message is to be transported across the wireless network to the wireless device; and the enterprise server retrieving a public key from a public key look-up database that is associated with the wireless device and also generating a random session key, wherein in response to determining that the electronic message is to be transported across the wireless network to the wireless device, the method further comprises the enterprise server: converting the protected electronic message to a data structure recognizable by the wireless device; using the random session key to encrypt the data structure with a second encryption algorithm and using the public key to encrypt the random session key, the second encryption algorithm being a stronger security method than the first encryption algorithm; encapsulating the encrypted data structure and the encrypted random session key into one or more data packets along with the wireless identification information; and transmitting the data packets over the higher-level connection to the gateway, wherein the transmitted encapsulated data structure is protected with first encryption algorithm and encrypted with the second encryption algorithm.