Patent ID: 8627404

Claim:
A computer system, comprising: a host user system comprising: a first memory; and a first processor operable to monitor the host user system, the first processor further arranged to: monitor the host user system for addition of a file to the host user system; detect the addition of a file to the host user system; access one or more policies to determine whether to communicate information associated with the detected addition of the file over a communication network to initiate a possible malware analysis of the file; initiate, in response to determining to communicate the information associated with the detected addition of the file over the communication network, a communication over the communication network of the information associated with the detected addition of the file to an intermediary; and the intermediary, disposed separate to the host user system, the intermediary, comprising: a second memory; and a second processor arranged: to coordinate monitoring the host user system and the malware analysis and to receive the information associated with the detected addition of the file at the host user system prior to forwarding the information to a remote malware analysis system; the intermediary further arranged to access the one or more policies to determine whether to communicate, over the communication network, the information associated with the detected addition of the file received from the host user system to the remote malware analysis system to initiate the malware analysis of the file by the remote malware analysis system and to determine, based on the one or more policies, what information associated with the detected addition of the file to communicate over the communication network to the remote malware analysis system; wherein the information comprises one or more of the following: identification information for the host user system; identification of a manner in which the file was attempted to be added to the host user system; and timestamp information.