Trap E-mail Address for Combating E-mail Viruses

The biggest infection events show that the most dangerous viruses propagate via the Internet email systems. We propose a new solution to accelerate the identification of infected computers after an attack by e-mail viruses. Our approach uses trap e-mail addresses secured by a feasible cryptographic technique. The novelty of our work is the introduction of virtual e-mail addresses to identify virus sources. Furthermore we propose a technique for a secure file identifier that allows secure identification of a file for trusted parties, but makes it impossible for others. Our solution is viable: It has been successfully embedded in a localized version of a common desktop software.