Patent ID: 8745001

Claim:
A method comprising: ascertaining a set of preliminary characteristics of a first data structure, wherein said ascertaining said set of preliminary characteristics of said first data structure comprises surveying said first data structure for said set of preliminary characteristics, and storing said set of preliminary characteristics in a file integrity database; responsive to determining that said set of preliminary characteristics matches a set of characteristics of a reference data structure, determining whether said first data structure is corrupt and should be replaced with said reference data structure, wherein said reference data structure is a copy of said first data structure, said determining whether said first data structure is corrupt and should be replaced with said reference data structure is performed by a computing device, said determining whether said first data structure is corrupt and should be replaced with said reference data structure comprises determining whether a rule from a set of rules indicates replacement of said first data structure based on a set of secondary characteristics of said first data structure, each rule from said set of rules identifies whether said first data structure is corrupt, and said set of secondary characteristics of said first data structure comprises characteristics that identify said first data structure and describe content and/or a format of said first data structure; and responsive to determining that said first data structure is corrupt and should be replaced with said reference data structure, replacing said first data structure with said reference data structure.