P2P Virus Protection via Intermediary Scanning Server
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Peer-to-peer networks face challenges in protecting computers from viruses during data transfers, as direct exchanges between clients can facilitate the spread of malicious codes, especially in environments with unknown users lacking antivirus measures.
Innovation Solution
A P2P protect server with a crawler and scan engine scans files for viruses and stores results in a database, allowing a P2P client to query the server about the virus status of files before downloading, enabling users to make informed decisions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If direct P2P data transfer is implemented, then data transfer speed and efficiency are improved, but security risk increases due to potential virus transmission
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a P2P protect server as an intermediary between P2P clients. This server crawls files available for transfer, scans them for viruses using a scan engine, and stores the results in a database. When a client wants to download a file, the protect application queries the server for virus status information, allowing safe direct transfer only for verified clean files, thus maintaining both speed and security
2Reliability
If comprehensive virus scanning is performed on all files, then security protection is improved, but system complexity and processing time increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the virus protection system into separate functional modules: a crawler component that collects files, a scan engine that performs virus detection, a database that stores results, and a protect application that queries and displays information. This segmentation allows each component to specialize in one task, improving overall efficiency and reducing the complexity burden on any single element while maintaining comprehensive security
Data Source
AI summary
In one embodiment, a peer-to-peer (P2P) protect server may include a crawler to obtain files available for P2P data transfer. The P2P protect server may employ a scan engine to scan the files for computer viruses, and store the results of the scanning in a database. A P2P protect application running in a P2P client may request the P2P protect server for information on whether or not a particular file available for P2P data transfer is infected with a computer virus. This allows the user of the P2P client to make an informed decision before downloading the file from another P2P client.