Abstract: Pre-emptive malware scanning of user specified operating system 10, 12 defined storage locations is performed to establish whether those storage locations contain any malware containing computer files. If the storage locations are malware-free, then they are classified as clean storage locations and subsequent read accesses to those storage locations will be permitted without requiring further malware scanning. Writes to clean storage locations will continue to be malware scanned.

Abstract: A malware detection system seeking to identify computer viruses, worms, Trojans, banned files and the like acts to determine from the file name, file size and storage location of a computer file being tested, whether that computer file potentially matches a specific known malware free computer file stored within a list of such specific known malware free computer files. If a match occurs indicating that the candidate computer file is potentially the specific known malware free computer file, then this is confirmed by calculating a checksum of the candidate computer file and comparing this against a stored corresponding checksum of the specific known malware free computer file. If these checksums match, then the candidate computer file can be passed as clean without requiring further time consuming malware detection scanning.

Abstract: A request for secure data sent from a client computer 2 to a webtsite server computer 4 is redirected to a proxy computer 6. A secure connection is established with the proxy computer 6 using a protocol such as HTTP and Certificate Exchange. The proxy computer 6 then establishes its own secure connection with the website server 4. The data requested is passed in encrypted form from the website server computer 4 to the proxy computer 6. The proxy computer 6 decrypts this data and then scans it for illegal content, such as computer viruses, worms, Trojans, banned computer files, banned words, banned combinations of words or banned images and the like. Providing no illegal content is found, the data is encrypted again for transfer over the secure link between the proxy computer 6 and the client computer 2. The proxy computer 6 may conveniently be the firewall computer within a local area network.

Abstract: A computer file update triggering technique uses tags embedded within e-mail messages sent to connected computers to indicate the existence of an updated version of a computer file to those connected computers. The connected computers may then automatically download the updated version of the computer file. The notification via e-mail of the existence of the updated computer files may be provided as a subscription service by the computer file provider.

Abstract: A request for secure data sent from a client computer 2 to a webtsite server computer 4 is redirected to a proxy computer 6. A secure connection is established with the proxy computer 6 using a protocol such as HTTPS and Certificate Exchange. The proxy computer 6 then establishes its own secure connection with the website server 4. The data requested is passed in encrypted form from the website server computer 4 to the proxy computer 6. The proxy computer 6 decrypts this data and then scans it for illegal content, such as computer viruses, worms, Trojans, banned computer files, banned words, banned combinations of words or banned images and the like. Providing no illegal content is found, the data is encrypted again for transfer over the secure link between the proxy computer 6 and the client computer 2. The proxy computer 6 may conveniently be the firewall computer within a local area network.

Abstract: Pre-emptive malware scanning of user specified operating system 10, 12 defined storage locations is performed to establish whether those storage locations contain any malware containing computer files. If the storage locations are malware-free, then they are classified as clean storage locations and subsequent read accesses to those storage locations will be permitted without requiring further malware scanning. Writes to clean storage locations will continue to be malware scanned.

Abstract: A computer file update triggering technique uses tags embedded within e-mail messages sent to connected computers to indicate the existence of an updated version of a computer file to those connected computers. The connected computers may then automatically download the updated version of the computer file. The notification via e-mail of the existence of the updated computer files may be provided as a subscription service by the computer file provider.