Patent application number | Description | Published |
20110219453 | Security method and apparatus directed at removeable storage devices - A method of protecting a computer against malware infection. The method includes during operation of the computer, reading master boot record code from a removable storage device into the computer and inspecting said code to identify any instructions associated with suspicious behaviour. In the event that suspicious instructions are identified, the master boot record code on the removable storage device is modified and/or the behaviour of the computer adapted in order to prevent said master boot record code installing malware into the computer. Examples of suspicious behaviour include hard disk read or write operations. | 09-08-2011 |
20110296525 | Malware scanning - According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of scanning a computer system for malware. The method includes determining when an application being executed on the computer system is attempting to open a file, adding data written to the open file by the application into a malware scanner queue, and ensuring that the application has been notified that the file has been closed before scanning the queued file data to determine if it relates to potential malware. | 12-01-2011 |
20120102569 | Computer system analysis method and apparatus - A method of analysing a computer on which are installed a plurality of applications each comprising a set of inter-related objects. The method first comprises identifying a local dependency network for each of one or more of said applications, a local dependency network comprising at least a set of object paths and inter-object relationships. The (or each) local application dependency network is then compared against a database of known application dependency networks to determine whether the application associated with the local dependency network is known. The results of the comparison are then used to identify malware and/or orphan objects. | 04-26-2012 |
20120185939 | Malware detection - A computer-implemented method of scanning a plurality of files stored in a memory of a computer for malware. The computer includes a processor. The method includes, for each respective file of said plurality of files in said memory determining, using said processor, whether a relationship between the respective file and stored data satisfies a predetermined criterion. The stored data indicates one or more files determined not to contain malware and for which data associated with each of said one or more files has a predetermined characteristic. If the relationship satisfies the predetermined criterion, the respective file is processed according to said first processing method and if said relationship does not satisfy said predetermined criterion, the respective file is processed according to said second processing method. | 07-19-2012 |
20120192273 | Malware detection - First data relating to a selected file is obtained. Based upon the first data it is determined if malware detection processing can be selected. Malware detection processing of the file is selected based upon said first data if it is determined that malware detection processing can be selected based upon the first data. If it is determined that, based upon the first data, malware detection processing cannot be selected based upon the first data, second data relating to the selected file is obtained and malware detection processing of the file is selected based upon said first and second obtained data. The selected malware detection processing is applied to said selected file. In an exemplary embodiment the first data is metadata and represents a faster scan of the file, and the second data is content of the file's header and represents a more in-depth scan of the file. | 07-26-2012 |
20120278892 | Updating anti-virus software - A method of updating an anti-virus application including an updatable module running on a client terminal. The method includes receiving an update at the client terminal, initialising the updatable module within a sandbox environment and applying the update to the updatable module. Control tests are then run on the updated sandboxed module and if the control tests are passed, the updated module is brought out of the sandbox environment and normal scanning is allowed to proceed using the updated module. If the control tests are not passed, however, normal scanning using the updated module is prevented. | 11-01-2012 |
20120297486 | Look ahead malware scanning - According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of scanning for malware during execution of an application on a computer system. The method includes detecting accesses by the application to files within a common directory, using the detected accesses to identify one or more groups of files within said common directory that the application may subsequently want to access, and scanning said one or more groups of files for malware prior to the application attempting to access files of the group or groups. | 11-22-2012 |
20130067577 | Malware scanning - According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of scanning a computer device in order to detect potential malware when an operating system running on the computer device prevents applications installed on the device from accessing installed files of other applications installed on the device. The method includes the steps of detecting installation of an application on the device, identifying one or more installation files that are required to perform the installation of the application, and performing a malware scan of the identified installation files and/or information obtained from the installation files. | 03-14-2013 |
20140137253 | SECURITY METHOD AND APPARATUS - In accordance with an example embodiment of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus, comprising: at least one processor; and at least one memory including executable instructions. The at least one memory and the executable instructions are configured to, in cooperation with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to perform at least the following: during the loading of an operating system, loading a boot time driver installed by an anti-virus application; reading a master boot record data by the boot time driver as soon as the operating system is ready to handle the request for reading the master boot record data; analyzing the collected master boot record data to identify any malicious entities; and in the event that malicious entities are identified, controlling the behavior of the processing system in order to disable the malicious entity. | 05-15-2014 |