Peripheral Controller Real-Time Virus Scanning Offload
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Solution Overview
Problem
Anti-virus software requires significant CPU resources and bus usage when scanning files, leading to inefficiencies and high overhead, especially in large data centers where constant protection against viruses is necessary.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a real-time virus checker within a data transfer device's controller that flags potentially infected files as they are written, reducing CPU load by only scanning files marked as suspicious, and invoking anti-virus software for a full scan only on flagged files.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If anti-virus software scans all files in real-time, then system security is improved, but CPU resource consumption and bus overhead increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the virus scanning process into two distinct stages: a first quick scan performed by the peripheral device controller that examines only file headers or signatures, and a second comprehensive scan performed by the host system's anti-virus software only on files flagged as suspicious. This segmentation allows the system to maintain security while minimizing CPU resource consumption by avoiding full scans of all files.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements preliminary action by performing an initial quick scan of files at the peripheral device controller before transferring them to the host system. This preliminary screening identifies potentially infected files, allowing the subsequent full scan to be focused only on these flagged files rather than all files, thereby reducing overall CPU resource consumption while maintaining security.
2Measurement precision
If anti-virus software performs comprehensive scans on all files, then detection accuracy is improved, but system overhead and processing time increase
Solution Approach 1:
The scanning process is divided into two segments: a rapid first scan at the peripheral device that provides preliminary detection, and a detailed second scan at the host system for confirmed suspicious files. This segmentation maintains high detection accuracy for the files that require full scanning while dramatically reducing the total time spent on files that are quickly cleared by the initial scan.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies partial action by performing a complete virus scan only on the subset of files that are flagged as suspicious during the initial quick scan, rather than performing exhaustive scans on all files. This approach maintains detection accuracy for potentially infected files while reducing overall scanning time by excluding clearly safe files from intensive processing.
3Reliability
If real-time virus scanning is implemented at the host system level, then security protection is improved, but bus usage and system efficiency deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the initial virus scanning function from the host system and relocates it to the peripheral device controller. This extraction performs the preliminary screening function at the peripheral device, reducing the amount of data that needs to be transferred over the bus for full scanning and thereby reducing bus usage and improving system efficiency while maintaining security protection.
Solution Approach 2:
The peripheral device controller serves as an intermediary between the storage peripheral and the host system, performing initial virus detection before data transfer. This intermediary function filters out clean files at the peripheral level, reducing the volume of data requiring bus transmission to the host for full scanning, thus reducing bus usage while maintaining comprehensive security protection.
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention provides a method, system, and computer program product for checking for viruses by adding a virus scanning capability to a data transfer device. In a method of the present invention a real-time virus checker is stored on a controller. The virus checker scans data as it is being written to a file. If a virus is detected, the suspected file is flagged. Anti-virus software is then invoked to perform a scan of the entire suspected file. In this manner, demands on CPU resources to perform scans will be greatly reduced as only those files marked as possibly containing a viruse need to be scanned, rather than scanning all the files on the entire data transfer device.