Patent ID: 8271608

Claim:
A method comprising: a) providing a cross-platform system on a mobile communication device that includes a platform-independent component, a platform-specific component and an abstraction layer component, wherein the platform-independent component explicitly depends upon an application programming interface (API) exposed by the abstraction layer component and the abstraction layer component explicitly depends upon an API exposed by the platform-independent component, wherein the platform-specific component is capable of being called by the platform-independent component using a dynamic extension, and wherein the platform-independent component and the dynamic extension are capable of functioning on any of a plurality of different types of mobile communications devices; b) using a graphical user interface on the mobile communications device, initiating a virus/malware scan of files stored on the mobile communications device using the platform-specific component; c) at the platform-independent component, receiving a request from the platform-specific component to scan data files stored in a directory on the mobile communications device; d) at the abstraction layer component, receiving a request from the platform-independent component to locate and to identify the files in the directory identified for scanning; e) by cooperation of the abstraction layer component and the platform-independent component, building a list of files to be scanned for viruses and/or malware; f) at the platform-independent component, performing a scan of the files contained in the list to identify one or more files that may contain viruses and/or malware; and, g) from the platform-independent component to the platform-specific component, outputting the results of the scan performed by the platform-independent component.