Automated management of virtual machines to process untrusted data based on client policy information

A client, comprising:

• one or more processors;
• one or more storage mediums storing one or more sequences of instructions, which when executed by the one or more processors, causes:
• in response to the client determining that digital content, originating from an external source, is to be received or processed by the client, the client identifying, without human intervention, one or more virtual machines, executing or to be executed on the client, into which the digital content is to be stored;
• wherein identifying the one or more virtual machines comprises the client consulting policy data, stored at the client, to determine a placement policy, a containment policy, and a persistence policy used in identifying the one or more virtual machines;
• wherein the containment policy identifies what network resources and client resources the one or more virtual machines can access, and the persistence policy identifies whether data stored in the one or more virtual machines is persistently stored;
• and
• wherein the placement policy specifies that the digital content should be stored by a virtual machine that has not yet been instantiated, and wherein the policy data identifies a template for use in instantiating the particular virtual machine, and wherein the template describes characteristics of a virtual machine suitable for executable code originating from the external source.

A method for transferring data to a client, comprising:

• in response to a client determining that digital content, originating from an external source, is to be received or processed by the client, the client identifying, without human intervention, one or more virtual machines, executing or to be executed on the client, into which the digital content is to be stored;
• wherein identifying the one or more virtual machines comprises the client consulting policy data, stored at the client, to determine a placement policy, a containment policy, and a persistence policy used in identifying the one or more virtual machines;
• wherein the containment policy identifies what network resources and client resources the one or more virtual machines can access, and the persistence policy identifies whether data stored in the one or more virtual machines is persistently stored;
• and
• wherein the placement policy specifies that the digital content should be stored by a virtual machine that has not yet been instantiated, and wherein the policy data identifies a template for use in instantiating the particular virtual machine, and wherein the template describes characteristics of a virtual machine suitable for executable code originating from the external source.

A method for transferring data to a client, comprising:

• in response to the client determining that digital content, originating from an external source, is to be received or processed by the client, the client identifying, without human intervention, one or more virtual machines, executing or to be executed on the client, into which the digital content is to be stored;
• wherein identifying the one or more virtual machines comprises the client consulting policy data, stored at the client, to determine a placement policy, a containment policy, and a persistence policy used in identifying the one or more virtual machines;
• wherein the containment policy identifies what network resources and client resources the one or more virtual machines can access, and the persistence policy identifies whether data stored in the one or more virtual machines is persistently stored;
• wherein the placement policy identifies a plurality of classes of virtual machines, wherein each class of the plurality of classes is associated with a different trust level for external sources of digital content, and wherein code executing in the particular virtual machine cannot access external sources associated with less trustworthy external sources of digital content;
• and
• wherein the policy data further identifies, from the plurality of classes of virtual machines, a particular virtual machine into which the digital content is to be stored.

A client, comprising:

• one or more processors;
• one or more storage mediums storing one or more sequences of instructions, which when executed by the one or more processors, causes:
• in response to the client determining that digital content, originating from an external source, is to be received or processed by the client, the client identifying, without human intervention, one or more virtual machines, executing or to be executed on the client, into which the digital content is to be stored;
• wherein identifying the one or more virtual machines comprises the client consulting policy data, stored at the client, to determine a placement policy, a containment policy, and a persistence policy used in identifying the one or more virtual machines;
• wherein the containment policy identifies what network resources and client resources the one or more virtual machines can access, and the persistence policy identifies whether data stored in the one or more virtual machines is persistently stored;
• wherein the placement policy identifies a plurality of classes of virtual machines, wherein each class of the plurality of classes is associated with a different trust level for external sources of digital content, and wherein code executing in the particular virtual machine cannot access external sources associated with less trustworthy external sources of digital content;
• and
• wherein the policy data further identifies, from the plurality of classes of virtual machines, a particular virtual machine into which the digital content is to be stored.

A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing one or more sequences of instructions, which when executed by one or more processors, causes:

• in response to a client determining that digital content, originating from an external source, is to be received or processed by the client, the client identifying, without human intervention, one or more virtual machines, executing or to be executed on the client, into which the digital content is to be stored;
• wherein identifying the one or more virtual machines comprises the client consulting policy data, stored at the client, to determine a placement policy, a containment policy, and a persistence policy used in identifying the one or more virtual machines;
• wherein the containment policy identifies what network resources and client resources the one or more virtual machines can access, and the persistence policy identifies whether data stored in the one or more virtual machines is persistently stored;
• wherein the placement policy identifies a plurality of classes of virtual machines, wherein each class of the plurality of classes is associated with a different trust level for external sources of digital content, and wherein code executing in the particular virtual machine cannot access external sources associated with less trustworthy external sources of digital content;
• and
• wherein the policy data further identifies, from the plurality of classes of virtual machines, a particular virtual machine into which the digital content is to be stored.