Fortinet, Inc.
MULTI-FACTOR AUTHENTICATION FOR ACCESSING AN ELECTRONIC MAIL

Abstract:

Systems and methods for facilitating secure access to email messages based on multi-factor authentication are provided. According to one embodiment, an electronic mail (email) addressed to an email recipient is received by a mail transfer agent (MTA) associated with a mail server. A security policy is assigned to the email by the MTA based on one or both of metadata associated with the email and content of the email. When the security policy calls for multi-factor authentication of the email recipient, the email recipient is caused to be notified regarding existence of the email by the MTA and instructed to complete a multi-factor authentication process in order to access the email. Responsive to successful completion of the multi-factor authentication process, the email is permitted by the MTA to be accessed by the email recipient.