Systems and methods for harmful file rating and screening in online file transfers

1. A method of screening content associated with a torrent file for downloading at a computing device, the method comprising:

identifying a torrent identifier of the torrent file, the torrent file being associated with content to be processed at the computing device;

using the torrent identifier to search a data store for torrent rating data associated with the torrent file, the torrent rating data indicating characteristics of the content associated with the torrent file, the torrent rating data being searchable using the torrent identifier; and

based on the located torrent rating data, controlling whether to process the content associated with the torrent file at the computing device;

wherein the torrent rating data is derived by a content screening server aggregating server-specific rating information of the torrent file that has accumulated separately at each of a plurality of external torrent servers that has provided access to the torrent file.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the data store is provided at a content screening server and in order to search the data store using the torrent identifier, the method further comprises:

transmitting the torrent identifier to the content screening server, wherein the content screening server is configured to search the torrent rating data for transmission to the computing device; and

receiving, by the computing device, the torrent rating data.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the data store is provided at the computing device.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the torrent identifier is detected on a webpage received from a web server.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of identifying the torrent identifier comprises intercepting a request to download the torrent file initiated at the computing device, and wherein the request comprises the torrent identifier.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the request is initiated using a web browser on the computing device, and the intercepting is performed by the web browser determining that a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) or Uniform Resource Locator (URL) to be processed for the request comprises the torrent identifier.

7. The method of claim 5 , wherein the intercepting is performed by a firewall prior to the request reaching a destination computing device from which the torrent file can be downloaded.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of identifying the torrent identifier comprises:

scanning downloaded files for the torrent file, the scanning being performed based on file properties of the downloaded files; and

upon locating the torrent file, parsing the torrent file for the torrent identifier.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the file properties used to perform the scanning comprise the Internet media (MIME) type of the downloaded files.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the torrent rating data indicating characteristics of the content associated with the torrent file comprises information indicating whether the content is safe for download to the computing device.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the content associated with the torrent file comprises a media file, and wherein the torrent rating data indicating characteristics of the content comprises information indicating the playback quality of the media file.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the aggregating of server-specific rating information comprises:

scanning each of the external torrent servers to obtain respective server-specific rating information of the torrent file; and

generating the torrent rating data based on combining the respective server-specific rating information obtained from each of the external torrent servers.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the torrent rating data comprises an average of the respective server-specific rating information obtained from the external torrent servers.

14. The method of claim 12 , further comprising:

determining an age of the server-specific rating information obtained from the external torrent servers; and

wherein the torrent rating data comprises a weighted average of the respective server-specific rating information obtained from the external torrent servers, with older rating information being weighted more heavily in the weighted average.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the torrent file comprises an ‘info’ portion, and the torrent identifier comprises an ‘info_hash’ of the ‘info’ portion.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein the torrent identifier comprises a hash of the torrent file.

17. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

identifying a content identifier associated with the content to be downloaded to the computing device;

using the content identifier to perform a search for additional data that indicates characteristics of the content associated with the torrent file, wherein the search locates the additional data indicating characteristics of the content associated with the torrent file;

wherein the step of controlling whether to process the content at the computing device is performed in part based on the additional data.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein the content identifier comprises a hash of the content associated with the torrent file.

19. The method of claim 17 , wherein the content identifier is embedded within the torrent file, and the step of identifying the content identifier comprises parsing the torrent file to locate the content identifier.

20. The method of claim 17 , wherein the content associated with the torrent file is downloaded to the computing device, and the step of identifying the content identifier comprises deriving the content identifier from the downloaded content.

21. The method of claim 17 , wherein the additional data is derived from a plurality of external anti-virus servers that are configured to return information about the characteristics of the content based on the content identifier.

22. The method of claim 17 , wherein the torrent rating data indicating characteristics of the content, as determined from the torrent identifier, and the additional data indicating characteristics of the content, as determined from the content identifier, have overlapping information.

23. The method of claim 1 , wherein the content associated with the torrent file comprises a plurality of files, and wherein the torrent rating data indicating characteristics of the content comprises a plurality of rating information that are each associated with a corresponding file of the plurality of files.

24. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of controlling whether to process the content comprises determining whether to download the content to the computing device.

25. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of controlling whether to process the content comprises determining whether to open the content after the content has been downloaded to the computing device.

26. A method of screening content associated with a torrent file with a content screening server, the method comprising:

receiving a torrent identifier for a torrent file from a computing device, the torrent file being associated with content to be processed at the computing device;

searching a data store of the content screening server for torrent rating data associated with the torrent file using the torrent identifier, the torrent rating data indicating characteristics of the content associated with the torrent file; and

transmitting the torrent rating data indicating characteristics of the content associated with the torrent file to the computing device;

wherein, based on the transmitted data, the computing device controls whether to process the content associated with the torrent file at the computing device; and

wherein the torrent rating data is derived by the content screening server aggregating server-specific rating information of the torrent file that has accumulated separately at each of a plurality of external torrent servers that has provided access to the torrent file.

27. A system for screening content associated with a torrent file, the system comprising:

a computing device comprising a processor and a memory storing instructions for screening files during online file transfers; and

a content screening server comprising a data store, the data store having torrent rating data associated with the torrent file, the torrent rating data being derived by the content screening server by aggregating server-specific rating information of the torrent file that has accumulated separately at each of a plurality of external torrent servers that has provided access to the torrent file and used for indicating characteristics of the content associated with the torrent file;

wherein, when the instructions are executed by the processor of the computing device, the processor:

identifies a torrent identifier of the torrent file, the torrent file being associated with content to be processed at the computing device; and

transmits the torrent identifier to the content screening server;

wherein the content screening server:

receives the torrent identifier from the computing device;

searches, using the torrent identifier, for torrent rating data indicating characteristics of the content associated with the torrent file from the data store; and

transmits the torrent rating data indicating characteristics of the content associated with the torrent file to the computing device, and

wherein the instructions stored at the computing device further configure the processor of the computing device to:

based on the torrent rating data received from the content screening server, control whether to process the content associated with the torrent file at the computing device.