Active firewall system and methodology

A method for providing automated network security for a network system, the method comprising:

• providing a configurable firewall capable of limiting access to the network system, a sensor for detecting vulnerabilities in the network system, and an arbiter for specifying reconfiguration of the firewall for handling vulnerabilities detected by the sensor;
• specifying that the firewall, the sensor, and the arbiter may participate in authenticated communication;
• detecting by the sensor a particular vulnerability in the network system;
• establishing an authenticated communication session between the sensor and the arbiter for transmitting information about the particular vulnerability from the sensor to the arbiter;
• and
• establishing an authenticated communication session between the arbiter and the firewall for transmitting instructions for handling the particular vulnerability from the arbiter to the firewall, such that the particular vulnerability may be handled in an automated manner.

A system providing automatically-reconfigurable security for a computer network, the system comprising:

• a configurable firewall component providing security to the computer network;
• a sensor component for detecting security-related events that occur in the computer network;
• an arbiter component for specifying reconfiguration of the firewall component for handling at least some of the security-related events detected by the sensor component;
• and
• a communication layer, configured to specify that the firewall component, the sensor component, and the arbiter component may participate in authenticated communication, so that the firewall component may be automatically reconfigured by the arbiter component to handle a particular security-related event that has been detected by the sensor component.