METHOD, APPARATUS AND SYSTEM FOR DETECTING UNWANTED DIGITAL CONTENT DELIVERED TO A MAIL BOX
First Claim
1. A method for detecting unwanted digital content in a mail box stored on a mail server, the method comprising:
- receiving digital content at the mail server;
performing a first scan of the digital content to determine whether the digital content includes unwanted content, wherein the first scan determines whether a signature associated with the digital content is included in a first list of signatures that identify digital content known to include unwanted content;
forwarding the digital content to the mail box; and
performing a second scan of the digital content in the mail box to determine whether the digital content includes unwanted content, wherein the second scan determines whether the signature associated with the digital content is included in a second list of signatures that identify digital content known to include unwanted content, the second list of signatures being an updated version of the first list of signatures.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Email messages stored on a mail server are filtered to identify the email messages that contain unwanted content. The mail server receives incoming email messages over a network. A content filter performs an initial scan to identify the incoming email messages that contain unwanted content by determining whether signatures associated with the email messages are included on a list of signatures that identify email messages that are known to include unwanted content. The email messages that are not identified as containing unwanted content are forwarded to appropriate mail boxes on the mail server. Multiple scanning threads perform a subsequent scan of the email messages in the mail boxes to identify those email messages containing unwanted content that were not identified by the initial scan. The subsequent scan determines whether signatures associated with the email messages in the mail boxes are included in an updated list of the signatures.
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Citations
24 Claims
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1. A method for detecting unwanted digital content in a mail box stored on a mail server, the method comprising:
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receiving digital content at the mail server; performing a first scan of the digital content to determine whether the digital content includes unwanted content, wherein the first scan determines whether a signature associated with the digital content is included in a first list of signatures that identify digital content known to include unwanted content; forwarding the digital content to the mail box; and performing a second scan of the digital content in the mail box to determine whether the digital content includes unwanted content, wherein the second scan determines whether the signature associated with the digital content is included in a second list of signatures that identify digital content known to include unwanted content, the second list of signatures being an updated version of the first list of signatures. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A mail server comprising:
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a content filter comprising a first list of signatures that identifies email messages that are known to include unwanted content, wherein the content filter performs a first scan on incoming email messages to determine whether a signature associated with each incoming email message is included on the first list of signatures, the first list of signatures being updated with at least one additional signature to comprise a second list of signatures that identifies email messages that are known to include unwanted content; and a mail store comprising a plurality of mail boxes for storing the email messages after the first scan is performed, wherein the content filter executes a plurality of scanning threads each performing a second scan on the email messages in a corresponding mail box to determine whether a signature associated with each scanned email message is included on the second list of signatures. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. A system for filtering email message content in mail boxes stored on a mail server, the system comprising:
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means for receiving email messages at the mail server; means for performing a first scan of the email messages to determine which email messages include unwanted content, wherein the first scan is performed by executing a first algorithm to determine whether a signature associated with each email message is included in a first list of signatures that identify email messages known to include unwanted content; means for forwarding the email messages to the appropriate mail boxes; and means for performing a second scan of the email messages in the mail boxes to determine which email messages include unwanted content, wherein the second scan is performed by executing multiple threads. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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Specification