A procedure and implementations thereof are disclosed that significantly
reduce the amount of time necessary to perform a virus scan. A file
signature is created each time a file is modified (i.e., with each "file
write" to that file). The file signature is inserted, with a date stamp,
into the file attributes. The virus scan program checks the
previously-created file signature against the virus signature file
instead of creating the file signature for every file during the virus
scan. Checks to ensure that the file signature is secure, and is valid
and up to date, are also implemented. Only if the file signature is not
valid and up-to-date does the virus scan program create a new file
signature at the time of the running of the virus scan.