JP2015001854A - Electronic mail transmission control system and program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an electronic mail transmission control technology that enables reduction in risk of an electronic mail being transmitted to a wrong destination by automatically detecting an error related to the destination.SOLUTION: An electronic mail transmission control system 10 comprises: a setting value storage unit 22 that preliminarily stores a setting value for extracting a necessary check item from an electronic mail; a transmission control unit 14 that, when the electronic mail is transmitted from a mail client unit 26, causes a transmission to a transmission mail server 30 to be provisionally halted; and a transmission check process unit 16 that extracts the necessary check item from the electronic mail, causes a check screen 34 provided with a warning message and a warning icon to be displayed on a display, and when a check input is performed that clicks an individual warning icon in the check screen 34, causes a transmission screen 90 to be displayed on the display, and when a transmission button 91 is depressed, causes the electronic mail to be transmitted to the transmission mail server 30. When relevant information on a mail address designated as the destination is not included in an address description area in a text, the transmission check process unit 16 extracts the relevant information as the necessary check item.

Description

  The present invention relates to an e-mail transmission control system and program, and in particular, by determining whether or not an e-mail is appropriate before the e-mail is transmitted from a client terminal to a mail server, and displaying the result on a display. The present invention relates to a technology that gives an opportunity to confirm that the transmission of an e-mail is not an error.

  Currently, the use of e-mail has become established as a means of communication between companies, and highly confidential important documents such as contracts and quotations are frequently sent and received as e-mail attachments. For this reason, prevention of information leakage due to erroneous transmission of electronic mail is recognized as an urgent issue in each company.

  As a measure for reducing the erroneous transmission of the e-mail, as shown in Patent Document 1 and Non-Patent Document 1, a proxy server is installed between the employee's client terminal and the mail server, and the transmission destination is set in the proxy server. And the contents of e-mails are checked for suitability and the results are returned to the client terminal.

For example, in the service of Non-Patent Document 1, when an e-mail address (To, Cc) includes an external address, the e-mail is displayed on the transmission confirmation screen 100 as shown in FIG. A function for alerting the sender is provided by displaying a list of transmission types, e-mail addresses, and destinations and checking them.
JP2007-087327 CipherCraft / Mail Internet URL: http://www.ntts.co.jp/products/ccraftmail/index.html?ppc=g&sol=s Search date: May 7, 2013 Business Mail Entity Survey 2012 (2012) Internet URL: http://www.sc-p.jp/news/12/001014.html Search date: May 7, 2013

  However, it is not enough to overthrow the user's belief by simply displaying the transmission type, e-mail address, and destination on the transmission confirmation screen as described above. There was a high risk that the correct check box was checked and the message was sent to the wrong destination.

In the business mail entity survey 2012 (2012) of Non-Patent Document 2, there are a total of 40 cases that answered failures related to the destination in response to the question “Q24 (What is the failure?)” From the fact that there is a little more than%, it can be understood that it is extremely important to reduce errors related to the destination.
・ Destination (e-mail address) mistake ... 22.61%
・ Incorrect name ... 11.06%
・ Forgot to give honorific title (Ms., san) ・ ・ ・ 5.45%
・ Incorrect title (like Mr.) ・ ・ ・ 1.82%

Also, in the field of business, taking advantage of the characteristics of the e-mail system that "if you specify multiple e-mail addresses for Bcc, which is a type of destination, each recipient does not know the e-mail address of the other recipients" In many cases, the address designation in Bcc is used as a broadcast mail for sending the same contents of e-mail all at once.
However, despite the fact that various troubles have occurred with regard to this broadcast mail using Bcc, the existing erroneous transmission prevention service provides a mechanism to detect such errors related to the broadcast mail. It has not been.

The present invention has been devised to solve such a conventional problem, and by automatically detecting an error related to the destination on the system side and specifically presenting it to the user, The first object of the present invention is to provide a technique capable of reducing the risk that an electronic mail is transmitted to an incorrect destination.
A second purpose is to provide a technique for preventing various troubles related to broadcast mail using Bcc.

  In order to achieve the above object, the e-mail transmission control system according to claim 1 stores a set value for preliminarily storing a set value for extracting a confirmation item from the e-mail transmitted from the client terminal. A means for temporarily stopping the transmission of the e-mail from the client terminal to the outgoing mail server, and the contents of the e-mail and the setting values stored in the setting value storage means are compared. And a means for generating a confirmation screen showing all or part of the contents of the e-mail corresponding to the existence of the necessary confirmation item or the necessary confirmation item, and displaying the confirmation screen on the display of the client terminal. And an e-mail provided with means for sending the e-mail to the outgoing mail server when a confirmed input is made on the confirmation screen. In addition, the above-mentioned confirmation item extracting means compares the address description area in the body of the e-mail with the related information of the e-mail address designated as the e-mail destination. If the information is not included in the address description area, it is extracted as a confirmation item.

  The e-mail transmission control system according to claim 2 is based on the system according to claim 1, and the confirmation screen further includes an independent confirmation page for each attached file, destination, and body that are constituent elements of the e-mail. And the confirmation page displayed on the foreground has a mechanism that can be switched alternately by selecting a tab, and there is a need to confirm that the related information is not included in the address description area of the body of the e-mail. When extracted, the destination confirmation page includes an address description area in the text and a list of mail addresses designated as the destination.

  The e-mail transmission control system according to claim 3 is based on the system according to claim 1 or 2, and the required item extraction means is designated as an e-mail destination in an address description area in the body of the e-mail If the display name of the received mail address is not included, it is extracted as a confirmation item.

  The e-mail transmission control system according to claim 4 is premised on the system according to claims 1 to 3, and further, the setting value storage means stores the correspondence between the domain name of the mail address and the organization name in advance. The required item extraction means extracts a domain name from an email address designated as an e-mail destination, and obtains an organization name associated with the domain name by referring to the setting value storage means If the organization name is not included in the address description area in the body of the e-mail, it is extracted as a confirmation item.

  The e-mail transmission control system according to claim 5 is based on the system according to claims 1 to 4, and further, the required item extraction means has a plurality of e-mail addresses designated in Bcc of the e-mail. Nevertheless, if the address description area in the body of the e-mail does not contain a preset multi-address address, this is extracted as a confirmation item.

  The e-mail transmission control system according to claim 6 is based on the system according to claims 1 to 5, and further, the required item extraction means is a pair set in advance in an address description area in the text of the e-mail. In the case where a plurality of mail addresses are specified in To or Cc of the above-mentioned e-mail even though a plurality of addresses are included, this is extracted as a confirmation item.

  The e-mail transmission control system according to claim 7 is based on the system according to claims 1 to 6, and the required item extraction unit is a region from the first line of the body of the e-mail to a preset line. Is identified as an address description area.

  The e-mail transmission control system according to claim 8 is premised on the system according to claims 1 to 7, and the setting value storage means stores in advance a setting in which a specific domain name is an in-house domain. The required item extraction unit executes the above required item extraction process only when an email address including a domain name other than the in-house domain is specified as an e-mail destination. An electronic mail transmission control system according to claim 1.

  An electronic mail transmission control program according to claim 9 is a setting value storage means for preliminarily storing a setting value for extracting a confirmation item from e-mail to the client terminal, from the client terminal to the transmission mail server. Means for tentatively stopping the transmission of the e-mail, a required item extracting means for comparing the contents of the e-mail with each set value stored in the set value storage means, and extracting the required check items. A means for generating a confirmation screen showing all or part of the contents of the e-mail corresponding to the existence of the confirmation item or the necessary confirmation item and displaying it on the display, and when the confirmed input is made on the confirmation screen, the above A program for functioning as a means for sending an e-mail to a sending mail server, wherein the required item extraction means is the electronic mail Compare the address description area in the body of the mail with the related information of the mail address specified as the destination of the e-mail, and if this related information is not included in the address description area, check this It is characterized by extracting.

  In the case of the e-mail transmission control system according to claim 1 and the e-mail transmission control program according to claim 9, inconsistency between the address in the body of the e-mail and the e-mail address designated as the address is automatically set. And is presented to the user via the confirmation screen, so that mistakes caused by the user's assumptions can be prevented.

In the case of the e-mail transmission control system according to claim 2, the confirmation screen displayed on the display is configured such that an independent confirmation page is bound for each attached file, destination, and body that are main components of the e-mail. And a mechanism for switching the confirmation page displayed on the foreground by selecting a tab, so that the user can concentrate attention on each component of the e-mail.
In addition, as a result of limiting the number of items to be confirmed that are displayed on the confirmation screen at a time, the space allocated to each item becomes relatively wide, and there is an advantage that visibility is improved.
In addition, if there is a conflict between the e-mail address in the body of the e-mail and the e-mail address specified as the destination, a list of e-mail addresses specified as the address description part in the body and the e-mail address on the destination confirmation page Since both are written together, the comparison between the two can be done on the same confirmation page.

  The electronic mail transmission control system according to claim 5 considers this as a broadcast mail when a plurality of mail addresses are designated in the Bcc of the electronic mail, and pre-stores in the address description area in the body of the electronic mail. When there is no multi-address address such as “Destinations” set, it has a function to extract this as a confirmation item, so specify a specific personal name as the address of the broadcast mail. It is possible to provide the user with an opportunity to confirm in advance such mistakes.

  According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an e-mail transmission control system including a plurality of addresses such as “relevant parties” preset in an address description area in the body of an e-mail. Although there is a high possibility, if there are multiple email addresses specified for recipients other than Bcc, it has a function to extract this as a confirmation item, so check the destination type error in advance Opportunities can be provided to the user.

  According to the e-mail transmission control system of the eighth aspect, since the extraction process of the necessary confirmation items is executed only when a more dangerous external domain is designated as the e-mail destination, It is possible to eliminate the annoyance of presenting confirmation items even when only the in-house domain is specified as the destination.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration of an e-mail transmission control system 12 provided in the client terminal 10, and includes a transmission control unit 14, a transmission confirmation processing unit 16, a file transmission unit 18, A control item setting processing unit 20, a set value storage unit 22, and a transmission history storage unit 24 are provided.

  The client terminal 10 is a PC, and the transmission control unit 14, the transmission confirmation processing unit 16, the file transmission unit 18, and the control item setting processing unit 20 described above are executed by the PC CPU according to the OS and a dedicated application program. This is realized. The set value storage unit 22 and the transmission history storage unit 24 are provided in an external storage device of the PC.

The client terminal 10 is also provided with a mail client unit 26 realized by a general-purpose electronic mail program (mailer).
The user can create a new e-mail via the mail client unit 26 and send it to the e-mail address of the recipient.

First, after setting up an application program for realizing the e-mail transmission control system 12 in the client terminal 10, the user performs various settings for controlling the operation of the erroneous transmission confirmation process.
That is, when the user selects “control item setting” from the program menu, the control item setting processing unit 20 generates the control item setting screen 28 and displays it on the display of the client terminal 10 (not shown).

For example, the user performs the following settings through the control item setting screen 28.
(1) Necessity of warning display when inputting a large number of addresses
(2) Destination list not subject to popup
(3) Necessity of pop-up when inputting local address
(4) Necessity of forced pop-up when there is an attached file
(5) List of detection keywords
(6) “Domain name「 Organization name ”conversion list and definition of internal domain
(7) Language switching (Japanese, English, Chinese)
(8) Display of final confirmation button
(9) Necessity of extracting the security label set in the attached file
(10) Use or non-use of crypto flights, ID and password when using
(11) Address / address matching
(12) Broadcast email related to Bcc

  The setting in (1) above is to select whether or not to display a warning message when a large number of addresses are entered in the destination field (To, Cc). In addition, the number of addresses (threshold value) determined as “large” can be set.

  The setting in (2) above specifies a destination that is not displayed as a pop-up warning message by domain name or e-mail address, and can be set to "* (any number of characters)" or "? (Any one character) ) ”Can also be specified.

  The setting in (3) above is specified when local addresses (addresses after @) are considered as addressed to the company and are not subject to pop-up warning message display.

  The setting in (4) above specifies whether or not to force a pop-up if there is an attached file even if a destination that is not set as a pop-up target in the setting of (2) or (3) above is entered. It is an item.

  The setting (5) is to input a list of keywords to be detected from the title of the attached file or the text of the body. For example, a character string such as “Estimate”, “Financial Statement”, or “Top Secret” corresponds to the detection keyword.

  The setting of the conversion list of “domain name 名 organization name” in (6) above is to input a correspondence list of domain names and organization names used in organization name conversion (details will be described later). Further, “definition of in-house domain” means that “in-house” is defined for a specific domain name when setting a conversion list of “domain name⇔organization name”. By defining in-house domain names in this way, mail addresses that include other domain names can be regarded as “external addresses” and handled differently from in-house addresses (details will be described later). ).

  The setting (7) is for switching the language displayed on the pop-up and the transmission confirmation screen.

  The setting in (8) above selects whether or not to display the final confirmation button before displaying the transmission button (details will be described later).

  The setting in (9) above specifies whether or not to detect a security label such as “Top Secret” or “Restricted Person” in the attached file (details will be described later) ). It is also possible to specify the type of label to be detected.

The setting in (10) above relates to the use of “crypto flights,” which is a type of service that realizes secure delivery of files on a web basis. That is, when using the crypto flights, check “Use crypto flights” on the setting screen and input the user ID and password.
* Crypto flights: http://www.nri-secure.co.jp/service/crypto/index.html

  The settings in (11) above are the display name and organization name of the email address specified for the email destination (To / Cc / Bcc), and the address (name and organization name) described in the address description area at the beginning of the text. And a warning display function when there is a contradiction between the two (details will be described later).

  The setting in (12) above relates to a warning display function for a broadcast mail in which a plurality of mail addresses are designated in “Bcc” which is a kind of e-mail destination (details will be described later).

  When the user who has completed the input of settings via the control item setting screen 28 presses the “Register” button on the screen, the control item setting processing unit 20 stores the setting data in the setting value storage unit 22.

The processing contents of the system 12 will be described below according to the flowcharts of FIGS.
First, the transmission control unit 14 constantly monitors the communication status between the mail client unit 26 and the transmission mail server 30, and when detecting that an email is transmitted from the mail client unit 26 to the transmission mail server 30, The electronic mail data is captured and temporarily prevented from being sent to the Internet 32 (S10), and a copy of the electronic mail data is passed to the transmission confirmation processing unit 16.

The transmission confirmation processing unit 16 analyzes the content of the e-mail data and determines whether it is appropriate (S12). In the determination of suitability, the transmission confirmation processing unit 16 refers to the set value stored in the set value storage unit 22.
Next, the transmission confirmation processing unit 16 generates a transmission confirmation screen 34 reflecting the above determination result and displays it on the display (S14).
4 to 9 show specific examples of the transmission confirmation screen 34, and three switching tabs of “attached file”, “destination”, and “text” are provided.

  In the case of FIG. 4, since the attached file tab 36 is selected, only the attached file confirmation page 38 is displayed in the front. The attached file confirmation page 38 includes a header area 40 and a file list area 42.

Here, three attachments are listed in the file list area 42. For the second “financial statement.xlsx”, a warning icon 44 of “!” And “Open file” A popup 46 with a warning message “Please check, it matches the keyword” is added.
Since this warning display includes the “financial statement”, which is one of the detection keywords, in the file name of the attached file, the transmission confirmation processing unit 16 recognizes it as a necessary confirmation item and inserts it in the file list area 42. Is.

  In addition, in the header area 40 of the attachment confirmation page 38, a warning message “Keywords are matched./Please double-click the attachment to confirm.” And a warning “!” Icon 48 is displayed. Also, a warning icon 50 of “!” Is displayed in the attached file tab 36, and it is clearly shown that there is a matter to be confirmed on the attached file confirmation page 38.

Here, when the user clicks on the “financial statement.xlsx” in question, the application program associated with the extension of the file is activated and the attached file is displayed.
The user who checks the contents of the attached file and is convinced that there is no particular problem closes the file and clicks the warning icon 44 displayed in the file list area 42.

  Upon receiving the confirmation input for the warning icon 44 (S16), the transmission confirmation processing unit 16 eliminates the warning icon 44 and displays the confirmed icon 52 of “ok” (S18). In addition, since all the warning icons in the file list area 42 are thereby deleted, the warning icon 48 in the header area 40 and the warning icon 50 in the attached file tab 36 are also replaced with “ok” confirmed icons.

On the other hand, if the user confirms the contents of the attached file and determines that there is a problem, the user clicks a cancel button 54. As a result, the e-mail data held by the transmission control unit 14 is discarded, and transmission to the transmission mail server 30 is stopped.
Thereafter, the user again creates an e-mail to which a correct file is attached on the mail client unit 26, and performs transmission processing.

  FIG. 5 shows another pattern in which there is a problem with the attached file. In the header area 40 of the attached file confirmation page 38, “Keyword is matched./There is a label forbidden to send.” And a warning icon 48 of “!” Are displayed. Also, a warning icon 50 of “!” Is displayed on the attached file tab 36.

Three file attachments are listed in the file list area 42. A warning icon 44 of “!” And a security label 56 of “confidential” are attached to the first “financial statement.xlsx”.
In addition, for the third “minutes.doc”, a “!” Warning icon 44 and an “internal limit” security label 56 are affixed, and “Please reconfirm the address and label.” A pop-up 46 with a warning message is added.

If any security label is embedded in the attached file, the corresponding label ID is set as the property of the file, so the transmission confirmation processing unit 16 that has detected this has the security label associated with the label ID. Is inserted into the file list area 42, the security label 56 is pasted.
Incidentally, when a file with this security label set is opened with a corresponding program such as a word processor or spreadsheet, a label image such as “Top Secret” is displayed in the header portion of each page.

As a result of checking the attached file confirmation page 38, the user who has determined that there is no problem in sending clicks the attached file warning icon 44 displayed in the file list area 42.
As a result, the warning icon 44 is replaced with the confirmed icon 52 of “ok”, and at the same time, the warning icon in the header area 40 and the attachment file tab 36 disappears, and a confirmed icon of “ok” appears instead.
On the other hand, if the user determines that there is a problem, the user clicks a cancel button 54 and stops sending the e-mail.

In the case of FIG. 6, since the destination tab 58 is selected, the destination confirmation page 60 is displayed in front of the transmission confirmation screen 34.
Here, a large number of destinations (for example, 7 or more) are specified in the To and Cc fields, and past transmission history information is left in the transmission history storage unit 24 in the e-mail address set as the destination. Warning message “There are a large number of destinations. Please consider using Bcc. / There are destinations that do not exist in the transmission history” in the header area 62 of the destination confirmation page 60. "!" Warning icon 64 is displayed.
In addition, a warning icon 66 of “!” Is also displayed on the destination tab 58, which clearly indicates that there is a confirmation item on the page.

In the destination list area 68 of the destination confirmation page 60, e-mail addresses are grouped and displayed in a domain unit, such as “nris-dev.co.jp” or “nris-dev.jp”.
When the conversion information of “domain name ド メ イ ン organization name” is set in the setting value storage unit 22 in advance, the organization name is displayed instead of the domain name.
For example, because the conversion information of “abcbank.co.jp ⇔ Tokyo ABC Bank” was stored in the setting value storage unit 22, regarding the email address of “[To] Goro Yamada <goro_yamada@abcbank.co.jp>” The organization name of “Tokyo ABC Bank” is named.

  Further, if an e-mail address set as a destination includes a message whose past transmission history information is not left in the transmission history storage unit 24, a warning “!” Is issued for the e-mail address. An icon 69 is added, and a pop-up 70 in which a warning message “This is a destination that does not exist in the transmission history” is displayed.

  In the case of the person who sends the e-mail for the first time, there is a high possibility that there is an input error in the e-mail address, so the user's attention is drawn, but the user who confirmed that there is no problem in the address description is a warning icon When 69 is clicked, the warning icon 69 is replaced with a confirmed icon 71 of “ok”.

The user who has confirmed that there is no particular problem with the large number of destinations clicks the warning icon 64 displayed in the header area 62 and inputs confirmation.
As a result, the warning icon 64 disappears and a confirmed icon of “ok” is displayed instead. In addition, since all the warning icons in the destination confirmation page 60 disappear due to this, the warning icon 66 in the destination tab 58 also disappears, and a confirmed icon of “ok” appears instead.

On the other hand, when the user determines that there is an error in the destination, the user clicks the cancel button 54. As a result, the electronic mail data is discarded, and transmission to the transmission mail server 30 is stopped.
Thereafter, the user again creates an e-mail specifying the correct destination on the mail client unit 26 and performs transmission processing.

FIG. 7 shows another pattern in which there is a problem with the destination. In the header area 62 of the destination confirmation page 60, a warning message “The address in the body does not match the destination (To / Cc).” , “!” Warning icon 64 is displayed.
Also, a warning icon 66 of “!” Is displayed on the destination tab 58.

Further, an item “address in the text” is provided in the address confirmation page 60, and the user has previously entered the address description area of the text of the e-mail (for example, “from the top of the text to the second line”). The character string described in the set area) is displayed.
Further, in the “destination” item, the mail addresses designated as the destination of the electronic mail are listed in units of domains.

In this example, the mail address "Display name = Yamamoto-sama" is specified for the destination (To) even though "Yamada-sama" of "Sample Corporation" is described in the address description area of the text. Since the display name is not included in the address description area, the “destination and address conflict” occur.
For this reason, character string emphasis processing (reddening and underlining) is applied to the “Yamamoto” portion in the destination item, and it is clearly indicated that the point is a point requiring attention.
The organization name associated with the domain name (sample.com) of the e-mail address specified as the destination (To) is “Sample Inc.”, which is the organization name “sample” described in the address description area of the text. The email address is not highlighted at all because it matches "Inc."

In addition, the organization name associated with “sample-japan.co.jp”, which is the domain name of the email address described in the destination (Cc), is “Sample Japan Co., Ltd.”, which is in the address description area of the main text. Since it is not included, the “sample-japan.co.jp” portion of the destination item is also subjected to the same character string emphasis processing as described above to clearly indicate that it is a point requiring attention.
This is intended to give a confirmation opportunity to the user because there is a possibility of a security leakage problem when a person of another organization is described in the destination (Cc).

The destination range for matching with the destination is set in the set value storage unit 22 in advance. The setting options are illustrated below.
(1) Only when an external address is set for "To"
(2) Only when an external address is set for "To, Cc"
(3) Only when an external address is set for "To, Cc, Bcc"
(4) All of “To, Cc, Bcc”

  In this way, the system has a function that automatically matches the description in the address description area of the text and related information (display name and organization name) of the email address, and automatically detects inconsistencies between them. Compared to the case where only the decision is left, it is possible to overturn the assumption.

  In addition, in the destination confirmation page 60, not only the destination e-mail address but also the character string described in the address description area of the text (usually the organization name and address are described) is displayed. Without having to open the body of the e-mail one by one, you can immediately notice an error in address specification or address description.

In the case of FIG. 8, since the body text tab 75 is selected, the body text confirmation page 76 is displayed in front of the transmission confirmation screen 34. The “text” here includes “subject (title)” in addition to “text” in a narrow sense.
First, in the header area 77 of the page, a warning message “Keyword is included in subject / body” and a warning icon 78 of “!” Are displayed. In addition, a warning icon 79 of “!” Is also displayed on the body text tab 75 to clearly indicate that there is an item to be confirmed on the page.

In the subject area 80, the subject “About our stock price situation” is displayed, but since the “stock price” portion corresponds to the detection keyword stored in the set value storage unit 22, coloring (red) Is highlighted.
In the text area 81, the text “Yamada-sama / Thank you for your support. I am Yoshida of NRI Secure./ Now, consult about confidential matters that have been a concern ...” is displayed. However, since the “confidential matter” portion corresponds to the detection keyword stored in the setting value storage unit 22, the character string emphasis display similar to the above is performed.
Note that the character string emphasis display described above is an example, and other character string emphasis display (font enlargement, bolding, underline addition, etc.) can also be performed.

On the other hand, when the user examines the highlighted character string and confirms that there is no particular problem, the user clicks the warning icon 78 displayed in the header area 77 and performs confirmation input.
As a result, the warning icon 78 disappears and a confirmed icon of “ok” is displayed instead. At the same time, the warning icon 79 in the body text tab disappears, and a confirmed icon of “ok” appears instead.

FIG. 9 shows another pattern in which there is a problem with the text. In the header area 77 of the text confirmation page 76, a warning message “The address title is not in a multiple format” and “ ! "Is displayed.
A warning icon 79 of “!” Is also displayed on the body text tab 75.
In the body area 81, a character string emphasis display (highlight display) is performed on the address description area (the two lines from the top including the address of “Sample Corporation / Yamada”).
Further, a confirmation message 82 of “Bcc external address number: 20” is displayed on the right side of the title portion of the text area 81.

These are warning patterns assuming a case where a broadcast mail is transmitted to a plurality of recipients by setting a plurality of external mail addresses as the destination (Bcc).
In other words, as can be seen from the abbreviation of “Bcc” for blind carbon copy, even if multiple e-mail addresses are set, each recipient does not recognize the existence of other recipients (e-mail addresses) Therefore, taking advantage of this characteristic, it is common practice in business sites to simultaneously send e-mails with the same content to a plurality of customers.

  When sending a broadcast e-mail using Bcc like this, multiple abstract honorific titles such as “to all concerned” or “to customers” are usually used as the address of the text. Organizational and personal names are avoided.

For this reason, when a plurality of external mail addresses are included in Bcc, the transmission confirmation processing unit 16 first prompts confirmation by highlighting the entire address description area.
In addition, when “multiple honorific titles” are registered in the setting value storage unit 22, the transmission confirmation processing unit 16 sets the address of the body text even though a plurality of mail addresses are set as the destination (Bcc). When this is not described in the description area, a warning message “The address title is not in a plural format” is displayed in the header area 78.

Of course, just because multiple email addresses are specified in Bcc, it is not necessarily a broadcast email. In such a case, the user may click the warning icon 78 and input confirmation.
On the other hand, if a specific organization name or personal name is mistakenly written in the text in place of multiple titles, the user clicks the cancel button 54 Recreate the email.

  As described above, since the confirmation message 82 of “Bcc external address number: 20” is clearly indicated in the title part of the text area 81, the user may be given an opportunity to confirm whether or not the mail is a broadcast mail. it can.

Although not shown, other warning patterns can be set for the broadcast mail.
For example, even if the registered multiple titles (for example, “Everyone involved”) are described in the address description area of the main text, the email address of the external organization is displayed in the destination (To) or destination (Cc). If it is set, there is a possibility that the destination type is wrong. Therefore, it is appropriate to display a warning message in the header area 77 such as “If a broadcast mail, please set the destination to Bcc.” .

Also, when sending a broadcast e-mail, use the e-mail address for each business group (for example, the e-mail address as a “help desk”) instead of the e-mail address of the individual employee that the user uses in daily work. It is often stipulated in the company that it should be done.
In such a case, the user switches the mail address on the mail client unit 26 from the mail address of the individual employee to the mail address of the business group unit, but is automatically inserted at the end of the text. In some cases, the signature remains unemployed.

Therefore, when the e-mail transmission e-mail address is not that of an individual employee registered in advance, the transmission confirmation processing unit 16 issues a warning message “Please confirm signature (scroll required)” and a warning icon “!” 78 Is displayed in the header area 77.
In this case, if the user does not click the warning icon 78 after dragging the vertical scroll bar of the text area 81 to display the signature at the end of the text, it is not recognized that the confirmation input has been made.

When sending a broadcast mail, the sender's own mail address is usually designated as the destination (To). For this reason, the setting value storage unit 22 is set in advance so that the check as a broadcast mail is executed only when Bcc includes a plurality of external mail addresses and “From = To”. It can also be left.
In this way, it is possible to avoid the annoyance that the above warning message is issued even when a mail address of a plurality of external organizations is set in Bcc and it is not a broadcast mail.

  When a confirmation input is made for the warning icon in each confirmation page and all warning icons are changed to confirmed icons (S20 / Y), the transmission confirmation processing unit 16 designs an OK sign as shown in FIG. The final confirmation button 86 is displayed at the bottom of the transmission confirmation screen 34 (S22).

On the other hand, the user switches the tabs to perform the final check of each confirmation page, and clicks the final confirmation button 86 when determining that there is no problem throughout.
Upon receiving this final confirmation input (S24 / Y), the transmission confirmation processing unit 16 displays a transmission button 91 and a crypto flight button 92 (file distribution button) at the bottom of the transmission confirmation screen 34 as shown in FIG. (S26). At this stage, e-mail can be sent for the first time.

Here, when the user clicks the send button 91 (S28 / transmission), a transmission permission notification is output from the transmission confirmation processing unit 16 to the transmission control unit 14, and the transmission control unit 14 sends the suspended email to the transmission mail server 30. Transmit (S30).
This electronic mail α is transferred from the transmission mail server 30 to the reception mail server 93 and transmitted to the client terminal 94 of the recipient.
The transmission confirmation processing unit 16 registers the e-mail address described in the destination of the e-mail in the transmission history storage unit 24 as transmission history information (S32).

  When the user clicks the crypto flight button 92 instead of the transmission button 91 (S28 / crypto flight), a transmission request for the attached file is output from the transmission confirmation processing unit 16 to the file transmission unit 18. At this time, the file transmission unit 18 receives, from the transmission confirmation processing unit 16, the e-mail address set as the e-mail destination, the e-mail body, and the attached file. Also, the setting value storage unit 22 is referred to obtain the ID and password of the user's crypto flight.

Next, the file transmission unit 18 accesses the file distribution server 95 that provides the crypto flights service via the Internet 32, and logs in by inputting the crypto flight ID and password.
Next, the file transmission unit 18 transmits the attached file, the e-mail address (the sender's address and the recipient's address), and the text (including the subject) received from the transmission confirmation processing unit 16 to the file distribution server 95. (S34).

Upon receiving this, the file distribution server 95 stores the attached file β in a predetermined directory in the external storage device, and generates a guide e-mail γ addressed to the recipient and transmits it to the received mail server 93.
This e-mail γ describes at least a URL indicating the storage location of the attached file, the e-mail address of the sender, the subject of the e-mail described by the sender, and the body text.

When the recipient clicks the URL in the e-mail γ on the client terminal 94, the Web browser is activated and the download page transmitted from the file distribution server 95 is displayed (not shown).
Next, when the receiver clicks a “download” button provided on this download page, the file β is transmitted from the file distribution server 95 and stored in the external storage device of the client terminal 94.

  If the size of the attached file is large, sending it in the form of an e-mail may cause the transmission to be rejected due to the sending capacity limit on the sending mail server 30 side. It is desirable to have terminal 94 download.

  When the user selects transmission using a crypto flight, the transmission control unit 14 discards the stored e-mail data (S36). Even in this case, the transmission confirmation processing unit 16 stores the e-mail address designated as the e-mail destination in the transmission history storage unit 24 (S32).

If the user has not selected “use of crypto flights” on the control item setting screen 28, the crypto flight button 92 is not displayed on the transmission confirmation screen 34.
Similarly, if the user has not selected “Display final confirmation button” on the control item setting screen 28, the final confirmation button 86 is not displayed on the transmission confirmation screen 34, and all necessary confirmation items are confirmed. When the input is completed, the transmission button 91 is immediately displayed on the transmission confirmation screen 34.

  The required confirmation items in the e-mail described above are merely examples, and the transmission confirmation processing unit 16 can extract other necessary confirmation items according to the setting values stored in the setting value storage unit 22 and the pre-programmed judgment rules. Needless to say.

It is a block diagram which shows the function structure of the transmission control system of the email which concerns on this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the processing content of the said system. It is a flowchart which shows the processing content of the said system. It is a figure which shows the example of a display of the attachment confirmation page in a transmission confirmation screen. It is a figure which shows the other example of a display of the attached file confirmation page in a transmission confirmation screen. It is a figure which shows the example of a display of the destination confirmation page in a transmission confirmation screen. It is a figure which shows the other example of a display of the destination confirmation page in a transmission confirmation screen. It is a figure which shows the example of a display of the text confirmation page in a transmission confirmation screen. It is a figure which shows the other example of a display of the text confirmation page in a transmission confirmation screen. It is a figure which shows the example in which the final confirmation button was displayed on the transmission confirmation screen. It is a figure which shows the example in which the transmission button and the crypto flight button were displayed on the transmission confirmation screen. It is a figure which shows the confirmation screen in the conventional transmission control system.

10 Sender's client terminal
12 E-mail transmission control system
14 Transmission control unit
16 Transmission confirmation processing part
18 File transmission section
20 Control item setting processing section
22 Set value storage
24 Transmission history storage
24 Send confirmation screen
24 Transmission history storage
26 Mail client part
28 Control item setting screen
30 Outgoing mail server
32 Internet
34 Send confirmation screen
36 Attachment tab
38 Attachment confirmation page
40 Header area
42 File list area
44 Warning icon
46 Pop-up
48 Warning icon
50 warning icons
52 Confirmed icon
54 Cancel button
56 Security label
58 Destination tab
60 Address confirmation page
62 Header area
64 Warning icon
66 Warning icon
68 Destination List Area
69 Warning icon
70 popup
71 Confirmed icon
72 frames
75 Text tab
76 Text confirmation page
77 Header area
78 Warning icon
79 Warning icon
80 subject area
81 Text area
82 Confirmation message
86 Final confirmation button
91 Submit button
92 Crypto button
93 Incoming mail server
94 Recipient client terminal
95 File distribution server α Email β Attachment γ Email for download guide

Claims (9)

A set value storage means for preliminarily storing a set value for extracting a confirmation item from an e-mail transmitted from the client terminal;
Means for tentatively stopping transmission of an email from a client terminal to an outgoing mail server;
A required item extraction unit that compares the contents of the e-mail with each set value stored in the set value storage unit and extracts a required item,
A means for generating a confirmation screen showing the existence of this confirmation matter or all or part of the content of the e-mail corresponding to this confirmation matter and displaying it on the display of the client terminal;
An e-mail transmission control system comprising means for transmitting the e-mail to a sending mail server when a confirmed input is made on the confirmation screen,
Further, the required item extraction means compares the address description area in the body of the e-mail with the related information of the mail address designated as the e-mail destination, and the related information is included in the address description area. If not, an e-mail transmission control system is characterized in that this is extracted as a confirmation item. The above confirmation screen has an independent confirmation page for each attached file, destination, and body that are at least the constituent elements of the e-mail, and has a mechanism in which the confirmation page displayed on the front can be switched alternately by selecting a tab. ,
When a confirmation item related to the fact that the relevant information is not included in the address description area of the e-mail body is specified, the address description area in the text and the address are specified on the confirmation page for the address. 2. The e-mail transmission control system according to claim 1, wherein a list of e-mail addresses is written together.   The required confirmation item extracting means extracts the display name of the email address specified as the destination of the email in the address description area in the body of the email, as a required confirmation item. The e-mail transmission control system according to claim 1 or 2. The setting value storage means stores the correspondence between the domain name and organization name of the email address in advance,
The required item extraction means extracts a domain name from a mail address designated as an e-mail destination, and stores the organization name associated with the domain name by referring to the setting value storage means. If the organization name is not included in the address description area in the body of the email or the organization name is not stored in the setting value storage means, check this The e-mail transmission control system according to claim 1, wherein the e-mail transmission control system is extracted.   The required item extraction means includes a multiple address format preset in the address description area in the body of the e-mail, even though multiple e-mail addresses are specified in the Bcc of the e-mail. 5. If not, the e-mail transmission control system according to claim 1, wherein this is extracted as a confirmation item.   The above-mentioned confirmation item extraction means uses a plurality of mail addresses in To or Cc of the above e-mail even though the address description area in the body of the e-mail contains a preset address format. The e-mail transmission control system according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein when e.g. is designated, it is extracted as a confirmation required item.   The e-mail according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the confirmation item extraction unit recognizes an area from the first line of the body of the e-mail to a preset line as an address description area. Transmission control system. The setting value storage means stores in advance a setting in which a specific domain name is an in-house domain,
The required item extraction unit performs the above-described required item extraction process only when a mail address including a domain name other than the in-house domain is specified as an e-mail destination. The e-mail transmission control system according to claim 1. Client terminal
A set value storage means for storing in advance a set value for extracting confirmation items from the e-mail;
Means for tentatively stopping transmission of an email from the client terminal to the outgoing mail server;
The required item extracting means for comparing the contents of the e-mail with each set value stored in the set value storage unit and extracting the required items to be checked,
A means for generating a confirmation screen showing the presence of this confirmation item or all or part of the content of the e-mail corresponding to this confirmation item, and displaying it on the display;
When a confirmed input is made on the confirmation screen, the program functions as a means for transmitting the e-mail to a sending mail server,
Further, the required item extraction means compares the address description area in the body of the e-mail with the related information of the mail address designated as the e-mail destination, and the related information is included in the address description area. If not, an e-mail transmission control program that extracts this as a matter to be confirmed.

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