Patent ID: 8682979

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of securely communicating e-mail messages, the method comprising: intercepting an e-mail message on a sender computing device when the e-mail message is composed and sent by a sender on the sender computing device; sending the intercepted e-mail message in unencrypted form over a secure channel to a server system that implements a secure e-mail service; receiving the e-mail message in unencrypted form at the server system, the e-mail message being from the sender, the sender having an account with the secure e-mail service, and being addressed to a recipient that does not have an account with the secure e-mail service; storing the e-mail message in encrypted form on the server system; generating, or causing a generation of, an introductory message after receiving of the e-mail message at the server system; sending the introductory message from the server system to the sender computing device; transmitting, or causing a transmission of, the introductory message from the sender computing device to the recipient in unencrypted form via an SMTP protocol, said introductory message lacking at least some message content of the e-mail message, and including a link to a web client interface that provides functionality to authenticate the recipient and to securely retrieve the e-mail message from the server system and further including a message access key including a message identifier identifying the e-mail message and a service host identifier indicating to the recipient a network accessible address of the server system at which the e-mail message is stored, wherein the message access key does not serve as an encryption or decryption key; upon access of the introductory message by the recipient, programmatically receiving recipient data including the message access key and a recipient e-mail address from the recipient; registering the recipient with the secure e-mail service by validating the message access key and the recipient e-mail address; and transmitting the e-mail message in unencrypted form to the recipient via a secure communications protocol, based on the recipient data.