1. A method of accessing one or more file systems, the method including: a scanning engine sending a request to a direct file system access engine, wherein the request bypasses an operating system kernel; the direct file system access engine receiving the request and in response thereto sending a further request to at least one file system; the direct file system access calling at least one operating system function to execute the request, wherein the at least one operating system function is not directly related to standard operating system functions used to execute the request; the direct file system access engine receiving response information from the at least one file system; and the direct file system access engine sending the response information to the scanning engine.