1. A computer-implemented method of accelerating a scanning process comprising: creating, via at least one computer processor, a detection area map corresponding to a load-point, wherein the detection area map identifies one or more files loaded at the load-point, and wherein the detection area map comprises, for the one or more files, at least one of digital signature information, last modification date, and results of previous file scans of the one or more files identified within the detection area map; creating a file attribute cache comprising information about at least one file to determine if the at least one file requires scanning, wherein the file attribute cache further comprises an indicia of a definition set used to scan a file; upon subsequent scanning, determining whether a detection area has changed with respect to the detection area map; and re-evaluating the detection area in response to a change to the detection area.