Patent ID: 8595282

Claim:
A computer implemented method for communicating an entity's reputation to a user, the method comprising: determining hygiene scores associated with a plurality of clients, the hygiene scores representing assessments of trustworthiness of the clients and determined based on frequencies of malware detections on the clients; receiving a notification that one of the plurality of clients encountered an entity, wherein the entity comprises a file, a program, or a website; identifying a set of trustworthy clients based on the hygiene scores of the clients, a trustworthy client having a hygiene score indicating at least a threshold level of trustworthiness; calculating a reputation score for the entity, the reputation score comprising a measure of a ratio of trustworthy clients that have used the entity to all clients that have used the entity, wherein the reputation score represents an assessment of whether the entity is malicious; and presenting the reputation score on the client that encountered the entity, the reputation score accompanied by a message indicating that the reputation score is based on other clients deemed trustworthy.