US 2006/0190997 A1Published application

Method and system for transparent in-line protection of an electronic communications network

OwnerAmol Mahajani, Tanuj Mohan +2inventors

InventorsAmol Mahajani, Tanuj Mohan, Joseph Tardo, Dominic Wilde

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Abstract

The invention provides a method and system for enabling in-line communications channels between a plurality of computational systems and a switch, and/or a plurality of switches and a router. In a first version of the invention an in-line system receives uplinks of aggregated data from a plurality of switches and applies policies to the each aggregated data stream prior to transmission of the aggregated data streams from the in-line system to the router. At least one computational system provides a user identification associated with a user profile to the in-line system. The user profile informs indicates to the in-line system of the constraints imposed upon and activities permitted to the computational system originating the user identification. The constraints may include (a) one or more customized policies, (b) policies applicable to a group associated with the user identification, (c) virus/worm detection & protection, (d) a firewall, (e) virtual private network rules, and/or (f) encryption/decryption. In a second version the in-line system is configured to communicate directly with one or more computational systems as well as one or more switches.

Claims30

Dependent claims

In a computer network, a method for applying security policy to communication traffic transmitted from an access tier layer 2 switch and directed to the computer network, the method comprising:

a. providing a security system, the security system comprising a first interface, a second interface and a communications security module, the first interface coupled with the communications security module and the communications security module coupled with the second interface;
b. interposing the security system between the access tier layer 2 switch and the computer network, wherein all communications traffic transmitted by the access tier layer 2 switch for is provided to the first interface;
c. configuring the communications security module to apply at least one security policy to the communications traffic received by the first interface from the access tier layer 2 switch;
and
d. applying the at least one security policy to the communications traffic received by the first interface from the access tier layer 2 switch by means of the communications security module;
and
e. transmitting the communications traffic transmitted from the access tier layer 2 switch to the security system to the computer network via the second interface and in accordance with the at least one security policy, whereby all traffic received by the computer network from the access tier layer 2 switch is transmitted via the security system and in accordance with the at least one security policy.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.