Granted Patent B1

US 8,001,194 · App. 11/688,186 · Granted Aug 16, 2011

Abstract

Claims (32)

1. A method comprising:

identifying strings of symbols in a plurality of sequential lines of an object;

conditionally identifying the object as at least potentially unwanted, based on the strings of symbols, utilizing a processor;

wherein conditionally identifying includes calculating a score associated with the object and decoding the object;

wherein the score is based on a weight predefined for the strings of symbols;

and

wherein the object is decoded based on a font size of a letter represented by the strings of symbols and compared to known unwanted content.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the strings of symbols represent a plurality of letters.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the plurality of letters represent a word.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the plurality of letters represent unwanted content.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the symbols includes alphanumeric characters.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the object includes a file.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the object includes an electronic mail message.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising parsing the object to identify the strings of symbols.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining a ratio of a number of the symbols in at least a portion of the object to a total number of alphanumeric characters in the portion of the object.

10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising determining whether the ratio exceeds a threshold.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the font size is based on a font case of the letter represented by the strings of symbols.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the font case of the letter represented by the strings of symbols includes upper case, lower case, or proper case.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein letters associated with the strings of symbols are stored in a temporary object.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein words represented by the strings of symbols are compared to predefined words, and the weight predefined for the strings of symbols is assigned based on a weight of any matching predefined words determined by the comparison.

15. A computer program product embodied on a non-transitory computer readable medium, comprising:

computer code for identifying strings of symbols in a plurality of sequential lines of an object;

computer code for conditionally identifying the object as at least potentially unwanted, based on the strings of symbols;

wherein the computer code for conditionally identifying the object includes code for calculating a score associated with the object and code for decoding the object;

wherein the computer program product is operable such that the score is based on a weight predefined for the strings of symbols; and

wherein the object is decoded based on a font size of a letter represented by the strings of symbols and compared to known unwanted content.

16. A system, comprising:

a processor for identifying strings of symbols in a plurality of sequential lines of an object, the processor further adapted for conditionally identifying the object as at least potentially unwanted, based on the strings of symbols;

wherein the conditionally identifying includes calculating a score associated with the object and decoding the object;

wherein the system is operable such that the score is based on a weight predefined for the strings of symbols; and

wherein the object is decoded based on a font size of a letter represented by the strings of symbols and compared to known unwanted content.

17. The system of claim 16 , further comprising memory coupled to the processor via a bus.

Assignments (10)