Patent ID: 7577993
Filing Date: 2009-08-18
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A computer-assisted method of reducing spread of malware in an Instant Message (IM) system, comprising: a) analyzing messages exchanged between an IM server and an IM client; b) identifying one or more messages as possibly containing malware among the exchanged messages, at least one of the identified messages being a message sent to a virtual user having a virtual IM account, the virtual user automatically participating in a dialog with other users to elicit messages from malware operators; c) assigning a confidence level to each identified message, wherein a confidence level represents a probability of a message containing malware; d) training a Bayesian filter using the identified messages and the confidence levels; e) adjusting the confidence levels using a Bayesian filter; and f) iteratively applying steps a) through e) for identifying additional messages as possibly containing malware, for re-training the Bayesian filter using at least the identified additional messages, and for further adjusting the confidence levels using the Bayesian filter.