Detecting spam email using multiple spam classifiers

Abstract

A method for detecting undesirable emails is disclosed. The method combines input from two or more spam classifiers to provide improved classification effectiveness and robustness. The method's effectiveness is improved over that of any one constituent classifier in the sense that the detection rate is increased and / or the false positive rate is decreased. The method's robustness is improved in the sense that, if spammers temporarily elude any one constituent classifier, the other constituent classifiers will still be likely to catch the spam. The method includes obtaining a score from each of a plurality of constituent spam classifiers by applying them to a given input email. The method further includes obtaining a combined spam score from a combined spam classifier that takes as input the plurality of constituent spam classifier scores, the combined spam classifier being computed automatically in accordance with a specified false-positive vs. false-negative tradeoff. The method further includes identifying the given input email as an undesirable email if the combined spam score indicates that the input e-mail is undesirable.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] Not Applicable. COPYRIGHT [0002] All of the material in this patent application is subject to copyright protection under the copyright laws of the United States and of other countries. As of the first effective filing date of the present application, this material is protected as unpublished material. However, permission to copy this material is hereby granted to the extent that the copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent documentation or patent disclosure, as it appears in the United States Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever. STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT [0003] Not Applicable. INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE OF MATERIAL SUBMITTED ON A COMPACT DISC [0004] Not Applicable. FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0005] The invention disclosed broadly relates to the field of electronic mail or e-mail and more ...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

The use of e-mail, however, has not come without its drawbacks.

Almost as soon as e-mail technology emerged, so did unsolicited e-mail, also known as spam.

Reminiscent of excessive mass solicitations via postal services, facsimile transmissions, and telephone calls, an e-mail recipient may receive hundreds of unsolicited e-mails over a short period of time.

This results in a net loss of time, as workers must open and delete spam e-mails.

Unfortunately, spammers frequently invent new twists designed to circumvent commonly used similarity detectors, including adding, deleting, or modifying content of e-mails to make them superficially different.

Since different spammers are continually finding innovative techniques that temporarily weaken the effectiveness of anti-spam filtration techniques, users can receive an unacceptably high amount of spam in their inboxes.

In short, there is no one anti-spam technique that can long withstand determined attack by spammers, resulting in a higher overall rate of spam.

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