US Patent 7590698 Thwarting phishing attacks by using pre-established policy files

Methods, apparati, and computer-readable media thwart a phishing attack on a recipient of an electronic message by intercepting the electronic message; extracting a sender domain name from the electronic message; identifying remote links associated with the electronic message; comparing the identified remote links against a pre-established set of acceptable domains, using the extracted sender domain name as an index; and when at least one extracted remote link is not found in the pre-established set of acceptable domains, preventing the message from being delivered to the recipient.