Patent ID: 7467409

Claim:
A system for evaluating an attachment, comprising: a host computer; a trust service manager on the host computer configured to expose a common interface through which one or more file transfer client evaluates an attachment utilizing a plurality of trust providers, the trust service manager comprising: a commitment component, the commitment component being operative to cause the attachment to be committed to an identified transfer client and to invoke a check policy component; the check policy component being configured to invoke one or more of the plurality of trust providers to evaluate the attachment prior to the attachment being committed by the commitment component, wherein the check policy component is further configured to determine an aggregate trust score for the attachment based on the evaluations of the trust providers, wherein if the aggregated trust score for the attachment fails a threshold, then: the check policy component determines if an antivirus utility is installed and up to date on the host computer, wherein, based upon the aggregate trust score and the availability and up to date condition of the antivirus utility on the host computer, the check policy component assigns a final safety level for the attachment; a prompt user component; an execute component; and a save component, wherein the save component is configured to retain information related to where the attachment came from.