Demand scheduled email virus afterburner apparatus, method, and system

An apparatus comprising

• an email queue store;
• a plurality of spam filtration circuits;
• an inbound email reception circuit;
• an inbound virus filtration circuit;
• an outbound email transmission circuit;
• an outbound virus afterburner circuit;
• and
• a most recent virus signature syndication reader circuit.

A system for protection of a destination email server from spam and viruses comprising:

• an apparatus coupled to a wide area network coupled to a plurality of email sources,
• the apparatus further coupled to a network coupled to one or more email servers corresponding to destination IP addresses which intermittently receive email and intermittently transmit email to clients,
• the apparatus further coupled to at least one virus reference syndication server. and,
• a circuit in a client to check a recently transmitted virus database.

A method for operating an apparatus comprising

• a spam filter circuit,
• an output queue store,
• an email server interface,
• a virus pattern syndication reader circuit, and
• a virus afterburner circuit;
• the method comprising the processes of
• upon the condition that an email server indicates it is available to receive email from the apparatus,
• reading a virus pattern syndication feed for the most recently discovered threats,
• selecting emails in the output queue of the apparatus with destination IP addresses of the email server,
• scanning the selected emails output queue of the apparatus for the most recently discovered threats, and
• transferring email that pass the scanning step to the email server interface.

A method for operating an apparatus for protecting an email server from viruses and spam, the apparatus comprising:

• an email queue store;
• a plurality of spam filtration circuits;
• an inbound email reception circuit;
• an inbound virus filtration circuit;
• an outbound email transmission circuit;
• an outbound virus afterburner circuit;
• and
• a most recent virus signature syndication reader circuit
• the method comprising the following processes:
• receiving inbound email addressed to a certain destination IP address,
• storing received email into an email queue store,
• scanning email in email queue store with inbound spam and virus filters,
• disposing of email failing spam and virus filters
• marking email ready for outbound transmission which do not fail spam and virus filters,
• on the condition that the outbound email transmission circuit determines that a destination email server is available,
• retrieving most recently detected virus signatures from a virus reference syndication server,
• selecting all mail in the email queue store marked ready for outbound email transmission to the destination email server IP address,
• rescanning selected email with most recently detected virus signatures in a virus afterburner circuit, and
• transmitting only selected email which pass the rescanning step to the destination email server.