JP2004287842A - Electronic mail keeping method, electronic mail keeping server, and electronic mail keeping program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an electronic mail keeping method, an electronic mail keeping server, and an electronic mail keeping program for proving the contents and transmission / reception date and time of electronic mail, preventing the illegal utilization of the electronic mail, and recording the illegal utilization. <P>SOLUTION: The electronic mail keeping method in a mail server for transmitting and receiving the electronic mail comprises a stage of transmitting and receiving the electronic mail, a stage of ciphering the transmitted and received electronic mail, a preserving stage of preserving the ciphered electronic mail in a storage device, and a keeping stage of keeping the electronic mail preserved in the preserving stage in a non-rewritable recording medium at every expiration of fixed period of time. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to e-mail storage, and more particularly to an e-mail storage method, an e-mail storage server, and an e-mail storage program.
[0002]
[Prior art]
E-mails that connect terminals via a communication line and transmit information to a destination can be easily used and reach the destination immediately, which is convenient and is used by organizations such as individuals and companies. Further, the storage of the transmitted and received e-mails is performed by a unique method.
[0003]
[Patent Document 1]
JP-A-2001-282641
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
As described above, since the transmitted and received e-mails are stored in a unique manner, it is difficult to prove the contents of the e-mails and the date and time of transmission and reception. In addition, in an organization such as a company, recording of electronic mail is not performed as a whole, such as individual storage of electronic mail. For this reason, it is difficult to prevent unauthorized use of e-mails, such as information leaks or anti-social remarks using company mails, and it is not possible to record the occurrence of unauthorized use.
[0005]
The present invention has been made in view of the foregoing problems, and has been made in view of the above problems. It aims to provide a storage server and an e-mail storage program.
[0006]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to solve the above problems, the present invention is a method for storing e-mail in a mail server that transmits and receives e-mail, the step of transmitting and receiving e-mail, the step of encrypting the transmitted and received e-mail, A storage step of storing the encrypted e-mail in a storage device, and a storage step of storing the e-mail stored in the storage step every time a fixed period expires, in a non-rewritable recording medium. I do.
[0007]
In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, the present invention is characterized in that, in the storing step, search information for searching for an electronic mail stored in the recording medium is stored in the storage device.
[0008]
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an e-mail storage server for transmitting / receiving an e-mail, comprising: means for transmitting / receiving an e-mail; means for encrypting the transmitted / received e-mail; Storage means for storing the e-mail, storage means for storing the e-mail on a non-rewritable recording medium, and e-mail stored in the preservation step every time a fixed period of time expires, for storing the e-mail in the storage means And e-mail storage means.
[0009]
In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, the present invention is characterized by further comprising a search information storage unit for storing search information for searching for an electronic mail stored in the recording medium in the storage unit.
[0010]
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a computer configured to transmit and receive an e-mail to a computer, encrypt the transmitted and received e-mail, and store the encrypted e-mail in a storage device. And storing the e-mail stored in the storing step in a non-rewritable recording medium every time a predetermined period expires.
[0011]
As described above, according to the present invention, an e-mail storage method and an e-mail storage method capable of certifying the contents and transmission / reception date and time of an e-mail, preventing improper use of the e-mail, and recording the improper use A server and an e-mail storage program can be provided.
[0012]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
[0013]
FIG. 1 shows an overall configuration diagram according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 shows an e-mail storage server 10, a customer mail server 11, a management personal computer 12, the Internet 13, and a LAN (Local Area Network) 14.
[0014]
The e-mail storage server 10 is a server that temporarily receives an e-mail addressed to the customer mail server 11 or an e-mail transmitted from the customer mail server 11, and stores those e-mails. The e-mail storage server 10 may be provided, for example, on an IDC (Internet Data Center) or a customer's premises.
[0015]
The customer mail server 11 is a mail server managed by the customer, and sends and receives e-mails via the e-mail storage server 10. The management personal computer 12 is a personal computer used by an administrator who manages the stored e-mail. From this management personal computer 12, the administrator can view the stored e-mail.
[0016]
Next, a hardware configuration of the computer system of the electronic mail storage server 10, the customer mail server 11, and the management personal computer 12 in FIG. 1 will be described with reference to FIG.
[0017]
As shown in FIG. 2, the hardware configuration of the computer system includes an input device 22, a display device 23, a drive device 24, a recording medium 25, a hard disk 26, It includes a memory device 27, an arithmetic processing device 20, and an interface device 21.
[0018]
The input device 22 includes a keyboard and a mouse operated by an administrator or the like, and is used to input various operation signals to the computer system. The display device 23 displays various windows and data necessary for operating the computer system. The interface device 21 is an interface for connecting the computer system to a network or an interface for connecting other devices, and is configured by, for example, a NIC (Network Interface Card), a modem, a USB (Universal Serial Bus), or the like.
[0019]
Then, a program for operating the computer system is provided by a recording medium 25 such as a CD-ROM or downloaded through a network. A recording medium 25 such as a DVD or a CD is set in the drive device 24, and data and programs are installed from the recording medium 25 to the hard disk 26 via the drive device 24. The drive device 24 can also write data on a writable DVD-R, CD-R, or the like.
[0020]
The hard disk 26 stores data and programs, and also stores necessary files and the like. The memory device 27 reads a program from the hard disk 26 and stores the program when the computer system starts up. The arithmetic processing unit 20 executes processing according to a program read and stored in the memory device 27.
[0021]
Next, a software block diagram of the electronic mail storage server 10 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 3 shows a communication unit 50, a control unit 51, a search result output unit 57, a search unit 56, an encryption unit 55, an e-mail transmission / reception unit 54, a hard disk storage unit 53, a DVD storage unit 52, It is shown.
[0022]
The communication unit 50 performs network communication using the interface device 21. The DVD storage unit 52 performs processing for storing electronic mail on a DVD. The hard disk storage unit 53 stores the electronic mail on the hard disk 26. The e-mail transmission / reception unit 54 transmits / receives e-mail. The encryption unit 55 performs encryption / decryption of the electronic mail. The search unit 56 performs a process for an e-mail search request of the administrator of the customer. The search result output unit 57 outputs the result searched by the search unit 56 to the management personal computer 12. The control unit 51 performs overall control of each unit described above.
[0023]
Next, in order to facilitate understanding of the present embodiment, an outline of processing and a database will be described.
[0024]
FIG. 4 shows a mail storage server 10, a customer mail server 11, a management personal computer 12, a DVD 17, a mail DB 15, and a search DB 16. Among them, the DVD 17 may be a non-rewritable recording medium such as a DVD-R, a DVD + R, and a CD-R.
[0025]
The mail DB 15 and the search DB 16 will be described later, and the flow of electronic mail will be described first. First, the flow of an e-mail when the customer mail server 11 transmits an e-mail will be described.
[0026]
The customer mail server 11 sends an e-mail to the e-mail storage server 10. Next, the e-mail storage server 10 stores the e-mail in the mail DB 15 and transmits the e-mail to the Internet.
[0027]
Conversely, an e-mail addressed to the customer mail server 11 is first transmitted from the Internet to the e-mail storage server 10. The e-mail storage server 10 stores the received e-mail in the mail DB 15 and sends it to the customer mail server 11.
[0028]
The e-mail transmitted and received in this way and stored in the mail DB 15 is moved or copied to the DVD 17 when a certain period expires. Then, the DVD 17 in which the electronic mail is stored is delivered to the customer.
[0029]
Further, the administrator can search and browse the search DB 16 or the mail DB 15 from the management personal computer 12. In this case, since the mail DB 15 is encrypted for each customer, the mail DB 15 other than the customer himself cannot be browsed.
[0030]
Next, the mail DB 15 and the search DB 16 will be described. First, the mail DB 15 will be described with reference to FIG. As shown in FIG. 5, the mail DB 15 is a database for storing transmitted / received e-mails. For each e-mail, the “source”, “destination”, “date / time of transmission / reception”, “subject”, “subject”, It has data of “contents”, “attached”, and “DVD number”.
[0031]
“Sender” indicates the sender of the e-mail. “Destination” indicates the destination of the e-mail. “Transmission date and time” indicates the date and time when the e-mail was transmitted and received. "Subject" indicates the subject of the e-mail. "Content" indicates the content described in the e-mail. “Attachment” indicates a file attached to the e-mail. The “DVD number” is a number indicating the DVD on which the electronic mail is stored, and represents, for example, the 56th volume of the DVD.
[0032]
For example, an e-mail whose “source” is “ccc@bbb.com” and whose “destination” is “defg@zzzz.ne.jp” has a “send / receive date and time” of 14:21 on April 2, 2003. Minutes. The “Subject” is “secret information”, and the “attached file” is “newly developed data”. The “DVD number” is 56.
[0033]
As described above, the mail DB 15 stores all necessary information of transmitted and received e-mails. Next, the search DB 16 will be described. The search DB 16 is a database for knowing on which DVD the electronic mail desired by the administrator is stored, and serves as an index of the electronic mail stored on the DVD 17.
[0034]
Therefore, the data structure of the search DB 16 differs depending on what kind of search is performed. Here, two types of search DBs 16 will be described.
[0035]
The search DB 16 illustrated in FIG. 6 is a search DB for performing a search by “source”, “destination”, and “transmission / reception date and time”. In order to search by “source”, “destination”, and “transmission / reception date / time”, the search DB 16 shown in FIG. 6 stores “source”, “transmission destination”, “transmission / reception date / time”, It has data of “DVD number”. Then, as shown in FIG. 6, the data from the DVD number 1 to the latest DVD are prepared.
[0036]
Next, the search DB 16 shown in FIG. 7 will be described. The search DB 16 is a search DB having information on all the electronic mails stored in the mail DB 15. Therefore, this search DB can search for all items. Therefore, the search DB has data of “source”, “destination”, “date and time of transmission / reception”, “subject”, “contents”, “attach”, and “DVD number”. Then, as shown in FIG. 7, the data from the DVD number 1 to the latest DVD are prepared. Therefore, this search DB is a collection of the DVD number 1 to the latest DVD.
[0037]
Next, a user interface in the case where an administrator performs a search using the search DB 16 will be described. The screen shown in FIG. 8 is a search screen 60 for inputting a search key. The search screen 60 has a search key input field 62 and a search execution button 61. Note that the search screen 60 is a screen when the search DB shown in FIG. 7 is used, so that search can be executed for all items.
[0038]
For example, when the administrator wants to search for an e-mail whose “source” is “aaa@bbb.com”, as shown in FIG. 8, “aaa@bbb.com” is entered in the input field of “source”. Input, and press the search execution button 61.
[0039]
Then, a search result screen 63 shown in FIG. 9 is displayed. On the search result screen 63, hit number information 64, corresponding e-mail information 65, an OK button 66, and a next search button 67 are displayed.
[0040]
The hit number information 64 indicates the number of electronic mails corresponding to the search key. The corresponding e-mail information 65 is information of the corresponding e-mail. The OK button 66 is a button for ending the display of the search result screen 63. The next search button 67 is a button for displaying the search screen 60 again.
[0041]
Next, a flowchart of an e-mail transmission / reception process of the e-mail storage server 10 will be described with reference to FIG.
[0042]
The e-mail storage server 10 receives an e-mail from the Internet 13 or the customer management server 11 in step S101. Next, in step S102, the e-mail storage server 10 temporarily stores the contents of the e-mail by extracting the items shown in FIG. 5 from the e-mail. This temporary storage is performed by creating a temporary file or by using the memory device 27.
[0043]
In the next step S103, the electronic mail storage server 10 transmits the received electronic mail to the Internet 13 or the customer management server 11. Then, the e-mail storage server 10 encrypts the contents of the e-mail temporarily stored earlier in step S104. Next, the e-mail storage server 10 stores the contents of the encrypted e-mail in the mail DB 15 in step S105, and ends the processing.
[0044]
In this way, the e-mail storage server 10 transmits and receives e-mails, and performs processing for encrypting and storing the contents of the e-mails.
[0045]
Next, a process of storing data on a DVD will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. First, step S201 is a process that is repeatedly performed until the period expires. When the period expires, the process proceeds to step S202.
[0046]
In step S202, the e-mail storage server 10 updates the search DB 16. This updating process is executed by copying necessary items from the mail DB 15 to the search DB 16.
[0047]
Next, in step S203, the e-mail storage server 10 performs storage processing on the DVD. Whenever the mail DB 15 is to be discarded, the mail DB 15 is moved to the DVD if the previous mail DB 15 is to be discarded, and the mail DB 15 is copied to the DVD if the mail DB 15 is to be used continuously.
[0048]
The DVD thus stored is stored, for example, in a storage center or the like. Then, the customer can use the search DB 16 to obtain a necessary copy of the DVD from the storage center.
[0049]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the present invention, an e-mail storage method and an e-mail storage method capable of certifying the contents and transmission / reception date and time of an e-mail, preventing improper use of the e-mail, and recording the improper use A server and an e-mail storage program can be provided.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a hardware configuration diagram of a computer system.
FIG. 3 is a software block diagram of an electronic mail storage server.
FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an outline of a process according to the embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a mail DB.
FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a search DB.
FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a search DB.
FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a search screen.
FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a search result screen.
FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating an e-mail transmission / reception process.
FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating a process of storing data on a DVD.
[Explanation of symbols]
10 e-mail storage server 11 customer management server 12 management personal computer 13 Internet 14 LAN
15 ... Mail DB
16 ... Search DB
17 ... DVD
20 arithmetic processing device 21 interface device 22 input device 23 display device 24 drive device 25 recording medium 26 hard disk 27 memory device 50 communication unit 51 control unit 52 DVD storage unit 53 hard disk storage unit 54 E-mail transmission / reception unit 55 Cryptography unit 56 Search unit 57 Search result output unit 60 Search screen 61 Search execution button 62 Search key input field 64 Hit number information 65 Corresponding e-mail information 66 OK button 67… Next search button

Claims (5)

An email storage method in a mail server that sends and receives emails,
Sending and receiving e-mail;
Encrypting the sent and received e-mail;
Storing the encrypted e-mail in a storage device;
Storing the electronic mail stored in the storing step on a non-rewritable recording medium every time a predetermined period expires. The method according to claim 1, wherein in the storing step, search information for searching for the electronic mail stored in the recording medium is stored in the storage device. An email storage server that sends and receives emails,
Means for sending and receiving e-mail;
Means for encrypting the transmitted and received e-mail,
Storage means for storing the encrypted e-mail,
Storage means for storing the electronic mail in a non-rewritable recording medium,
An e-mail storage unit that stores the e-mail stored in the storage step in the storage unit every time a predetermined period has expired. 4. The electronic mail storage server according to claim 3, further comprising search information storage means for storing search information for searching for the electronic mail stored in the recording medium in the storage means. On the computer,
Sending and receiving e-mail;
Encrypting the sent and received e-mail;
Storing the encrypted e-mail in a storage device;
Storing the e-mail stored in the storage step in a non-rewritable recording medium every time a predetermined period has expired.

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