System, Method and Computer Program Product for Making a Scan Decision During Communication of Data Over a Network

Abstract

A system, method, and computer program product are provided for scanning data during communication of the data over a network. In use, a process is initiated for determining whether to scan data, during communication of the data over the network. Further, the data is conditionally scanned based on the determination.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method, comprising:
 initiating a process for determining whether to scan data, during communication of the data over a network; and   conditionally scanning the data based on the determination.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein communicating the data over the network includes downloading the data over the network. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the data includes an attachment to an electronic mail message or a file being downloaded using a protocol. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein scanning the data includes scanning the data for unwanted content. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the scanning is performed by a network gateway scanner. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising receiving a hash of the data. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein the hash of the data is received from a server in response to a request communicated to the server. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein the server stores a database of hashes for a plurality of different data. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein the hash of the data is received utilizing a header of the data. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein the process includes comparing the hash to at least one database. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the at least one database includes at least one of a false negative database, a malware database, and a clean database. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the data is scanned based on the comparison. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising computing a hash of the data after the data is communicated. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein the process includes comparing the computed hash with a received hash. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein the data is scanned based on the comparison. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein an action is performed based on the comparison. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising updating a database with a hash of the data. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein the database is updated with the data after the data is scanned. 
     
     
         18 . A computer program product embodied on a computer readable medium, comprising:
 computer code for initiating a process for determining whether to scan data, during communication of the data over a network; and   computer code for conditionally scanning the data based on the determination.   
     
     
         19 . A system, comprising:
 a processor for initiating a process for determining whether to scan data, during communication of the data over a network, the processor further adapted to conditionally scan the data based on the determination.   
     
     
         20 . The system of  claim 19 , further comprising memory coupled to the processor via a bus.