Patent ID: 9424422
Filing Date: 2016-08-23
CPC Classification: G06F

Claim Text:
1. A computer-implemented method for determining the legitimacy of a software application, the method comprising: programmatically detecting, using a processor of a computing device, that the software application is resident on the computing device; extracting, using the processor, visual user interface characteristics from at least one of an executable file and a data file associated with the software application; collecting and storing, using the processor, the visual user interface characteristics of the software application in a memory of the computing device; programmatically comparing, using the processor, the collected visual user interface characteristics to known visual user interface characteristics of at least one known legitimate software application; when a similarity between the collected visual user interface characteristics and the known visual user interface characteristics surpasses a predefined similarity threshold, analyzing at least one additional characteristic of the software application, wherein the at least one additional characteristic comprises at least one of a device driver and a kernel driver; and terminating the software application and quarantining the files associated with the software application for subsequent deletion from the computing device when the at least one additional characteristic is indicative of rogue software.