Patent ID: 8122507

Claim:
A method for scanning objects in a system, comprising: determining a differential scan collection period and an incremental scan collection period, wherein the incremental scan collection period is smaller than the differential scan period, wherein at least a portion of the incremental scan collection period coincides with at least a portion of the differential scan period; monitoring the system to detect object events; selecting ones of the object events based on the detected object events by determining whether an object event may cause a condition for which the scanning is being performed; based on the differential scan collection period, updating a differential scan list with information regarding objects associated with selected ones of the object events, wherein the differential scan list includes a list of objects, wherein an object includes a file identifier; based on the incremental scan collection period, updating a first incremental scan list with information regarding objects associated with selected ones of the object events, wherein the first incremental scan list includes a list of objects, wherein an object includes a file identifier; scanning objects included in the incremental scan list based on the information in the first incremental scan list; and scanning objects included in the differential scan list based on the information in the differential scan list.