Patent ID: 8769674

Claim:
A method of detecting a malicious message for an instant messaging service, wherein the method comprises: (a) originating a message in an instant messaging client application included in a first processing system, wherein the message comprises an entity of interest, and wherein a second processing system is a designated recipient of the message; (b) prior to transferring a portion of the message from the instant messaging client application, analyzing, by the first processing system, the entity of interest to determine if the message is malicious, wherein a malicious entity of interest is configured to cause damage to the first processing system and the second processing system; (c) in response to detecting that the message is malicious, restricting the message from threatening: the first processing system; and the second processing system in data communication with the first processing system; (d) setting the entity of interest as a base entity; (e) determining an entity property of the base entity; (f) establishing at least one related entity rule based on the entity property of the base entity; (g) scanning the first processing system to locate an entity that satisfies the at least one entity rule; (h) in response to locating an entity that satisfies the at least one related entity rule, classifying the entity as a related entity to the base entity; and (i) in response to detecting that at least a portion of the message is malicious, removing the malicious portion of the message.