Computer-implemented method and system for assessing the risk status of one or more networked devices using best practices guidelines

A system for assessing the risk status of one or more networked devices, the system comprising:

• circuitry for receiving a series of packets from one or more selected networked devices, the series of packets associated with at least one communication protocol;
• circuitry for identifying a communication protocol associated with the series of packets, the identified communication protocol being associated with a reference data model, the reference data model comprising a plurality of attributes of the identified communication protocol;
• circuitry for extracting at least one attribute value of the identified communication protocol from the received series of packets using the reference data model of the identified communication protocol;
• and
• circuitry for determining a risk of a configuration of the identified communication protocol as implemented by the networked device by comparing the at least one extracted attribute value to a reference value guideline for the identified layer communication protocol, the reference value guideline based at least in part on the identified communication protocol.