Patent ID: 8863284

Claim:
A method for determining a security status of at least one potentially malicious file in a customer network, comprising: receiving, by a client computer system comprising one or more processors and memory, client heuristics information from a server system for determining a security status of client data generated by at least one client application; monitoring and identifying at least one suspicious file of the client data as a potentially malicious file by analyzing metadata associated with the at least one suspicious file using the received client heuristics information; collecting threat-identification information of the potentially malicious file to exclude confidential information associated with a content of the potentially malicious file; transmitting the threat-identification information to the server system for determining a security status of the potentially malicious file based on heuristic information not shared with the client computer system; determining to transfer the potentially malicious file to the server system in response to a request based on a confidentiality level determined for the potentially malicious file; and receiving security tools from the server system to block or remove the potentially malicious file.