US Patent 7302584 Mechanisms for banning computer programs from use

An anti-computer virus system is used to enforce the banning of computer programs. A user is provided with a tool for creating their own banned computer program identifying data. The user-created data is then used to control the anti-virus system to identify banned computer programs and take appropriate banned computer program actions. The banned computer program identifying data can be encrypted with an organization's private PGP key such that it will only be capable of successful decryption and use upon computer systems within that organization bearing the corresponding public PGP encryption key.