Mitigation of network attacks by prioritizing network traffic

A computer system for prioritizing network traffic flow to a protected computer network, comprising:

• one or more data bases having memory configured to store instructions;
• a processor disposed in communication with said memory, wherein said processor upon execution of the instructions is configured to:
• intercept network traffic flowing from one or more external hosts to the protected computer network, the intercepted network traffic comprising data packets;
• drop an intercepted data packet if forwarding the intercepted data packet to the protected network would cause the value of the bandwidth of network traffic flow to the protected network to exceed a configured overall traffic bandwidth threshold value associated with the protected network;
• analyze the intercepted data packet to determine a classification type for the intercepted data packet based upon prescribed criteria wherein each classification type has an assigned classification bandwidth threshold value, wherein the classification bandwidth threshold value is less than the overall traffic bandwidth threshold value for the protected network;
• drop the intercepted data packet from reaching the protected network if forwarding the intercepted data packet would cause the value of the bandwidth of traffic flow to the protected network to exceed the bandwidth threshold value assigned to the determined classification type of the intercepted packets;
• and
• determine if a reserved service threshold bandwidth classification, having an associated assigned reserve threshold bandwidth value, has been configured for the protected network whereby if yes, then determine whether the intercepted data packet belongs to the reserved service type threshold bandwidth classification such that if the overall bandwidth usage of traffic flow to the protected network exceeds the assigned reserve service threshold bandwidth value then only if the intercepted data packet is determined as belonging to the reserve service type threshold classification will it be permitted to forward to the protected network, wherein the reserved service threshold bandwidth classification relates to a certain network service;
• and
• determine if one or more service threshold classifications have been configured for the protected network with each service threshold classification having an assigned service threshold bandwidth value, and if yes, then determine whether the intercepted data packet belongs to the one or more service type thresholds classifications such that if it is determined that the intercepted data packet belongs to the one or more service type thresholds classifications, then the intercepted packet will only be permitted to forward to the protected network if the overall bandwidth usage of traffic flow to the protected network is less than the service threshold bandwidth value associated with the determined service type threshold classification for the intercepted data packet.