Discerning use of signatures by third party vendors

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing executable computer program instructions for use of a security vendor's signatures by third party security vendors, the computer program instructions comprising instructions for performing the steps comprising:

• anonymously providing a bait file to a third party security vendor for security detection, the bait file being a non-malware file;
• providing a bait signature corresponding to the bait file that is included in a signature database of the security vendor which is made publicly available;
• monitoring security detections made over a period of time by a security scanner operated by the third party security vendor, including monitoring before and after the bait signature is provided;
• determining whether the scanner operated by the third party security vendor positively detected the bait file following the release of the bait signature for the bait file;
• and
• responsive to a positive determination, detecting that the third party security vendor used the bait signature provided to detect the bait file.

A computer system for detecting use of a security vendor's signatures by third party security vendors, the system comprising:

• a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing executable software modules, comprising:
• a bait file providing module for anonymously providing a bait file to a third party security vendor for security detection, the bait file being a non-malware file;
• a signature providing module for providing a bait signature corresponding to the bait file that is included in a signature database of the security vendor which is made publicly available;
• a scanner monitoring module for monitoring security detections made over a period of time by a security scanner operated by the third party security vendor, including monitoring before and after the bait signature is provided;
• a determination module for determining whether the scanner operated by the third party security vendor positively detected the bait file following the release of the bait signature for the bait file;
• a use detection module for detecting that the third party security vendor used the bait signature provided to detect the bait file in response to a positive determination;
• and
• a processor configured to execute the software modules stored by the computer readable storage medium.