The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Oct. 06, 2009
Filed:
Jul. 01, 2005
Francis Aurelio Desouza, Somerville, MA (US);
Jon Sakoda, Boston, MA (US);
Arthur William Gilliland, Jamaica Plain, MA (US);
Anandamoy Roychowdhary, Cambridge, MA (US);
Eric Lyle Lorenzo, Somerville, MA (US);
Milan Shah, Hopkinton, MA (US);
Francis Aurelio Desouza, Somerville, MA (US);
Jon Sakoda, Boston, MA (US);
Arthur William Gilliland, Jamaica Plain, MA (US);
Anandamoy Roychowdhary, Cambridge, MA (US);
Eric Lyle Lorenzo, Somerville, MA (US);
Milan Shah, Hopkinton, MA (US);
Symantec Corporation, Cupertino, CA (US);
Abstract
Methods and systems for reducing the spread of malware in communication between an instant message (IM) client and an IM server are described. An IM filter module (IM FM) is configured to intercept a buddy list sent from an IM server to an IM client, add one or more fictitious buddies to the intercepted buddy list, and forward the buddy list with the one or more fictitious buddies to the IM client. The IM FM is further configured to identify a computer that hosts the IM client as a source of malware based on messages sent by the IM client to at least one of the fictitious buddies and to determine that the host computer of the IM client is a source of malware if a content of the messages sent to the at least one of the fictitious buddies contains malware.