Anti-hack protection to restrict installation of operating systems and other software

#1. Field of the Invention

#The present invention relates to the field of information processing systems. In one aspect, the present invention relates to a system and method for ensuring a secure computing environment for computer systems used to communicate over the Internet.

#2. Description of the Related Art

#FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a plurality of computer systems communicating over one or more communication networks.

#FIG. 2 is a system block diagram of a computer system, such as a personal Internet communicator, in accordance with various embodiments of the present invention.

#FIG. 3 shows a block diagram of a processor system for use in the personal Internet communicator.

#While illustrative embodiments of the present invention are described below, it will be appreciated that the present invention may be practiced without the specified details, and that numerous implementation-specific decisions may be made to the invention described herein to achieve the developer's specific goals, such as compliance with system-related and business-related constraints, which will vary from one implementation to another. While such a development effort might be complex and time-consuming, it would nevertheless be a routine undertaking for those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of this disclosure. For example, selected aspects are shown in block diagram form, rather than in detail, in order to avoid obscuring or unduly limiting the present invention. Such descriptions and representations are used by those skilled in the art to describe and convey the substance of their work to others skilled in the art. The present invention will now be described with reference to the drawings described below.

#Referring to FIG. 1, a block diagram of an exemplary network 100 is shown wherein a plurality 105 of computer systems 110, 111, 112 communicates over one or more communication networks 140. As illustrated, each computer system (e.g., 110)—also referred to as a multimedia access devices or personal Internet communicators (PICs)—is operably coupled to an Internet service provider (ISP) 120 via one or more communication links 122. The Internet service provider 120 is coupled to the Internet 140 that is further coupled to a plurality of Web host servers 150, 151, 152. A user wishing to access information on the Internet uses a PIC (e.g., 110) to execute an application program stored on the PIC known as a Web browser.

#The PIC 110 includes communication hardware and software that allows the PIC 110 to send and receive communications to and from the Internet service provider 120. The communications hardware and software allows the PIC 110 to establish a communication link with the Internet service provider 120. The communication link may be any of a variety of connection types including a wired connection, a direct link such as a digital subscriber line (DSL), T1, integrated services digital network (ISDN) or cable connection, a wireless connection via a cellular or satellite network, phone modem dialup access or a local data transport system, such as Ethernet or token ring over a local area network.