Patent ID: 8209538

Claim:
A method of applying a sender-specific mail policy, the method comprising: maintaining a list of computer system users and associated sender-specific mail policies associated with each of said computer system users, each of said sender-specific mail policies indicating at least one of how and whether a user message, received from one of said computer system users, is to be further transmitted across a network; receiving a mail message intended for further transmission across said network, said mail message indicating a sender thereof; determining whether said mail message contains a digital signature; attempting to verify said digital signature in said mail message; after said digital signature is verified, said mail message is determined to contain a verified digital signature, after a user corresponding to said verified digital signature is determined to correspond to said sender indicated in said mail message, applying to said mail message at least one of said sender-specific mail policies associated with said user; and after said mail message is not determined to contain said verified digital signature corresponding to said sender indicated in said mail message, applying a default mail policy to said mail message, wherein: said default mail policy indicates at least one of how and whether a sent message, received from a sender omitted from said list of computer system users, is to be further transmitted across said network; and said default mail policy is more restrictive than each of said sender-specific mail policies.