Mechanism for establishing reputation in a network environment

A method comprising the steps of:

• obtaining, by a network operator device, traffic from a plurality of ports and a plurality of internet protocol addresses, wherein each internet protocol address corresponds to a range of said ports assigned to one or more connected network devices;
• obtaining, in a data communication from said one or more connected network devices, a first indication of inappropriate traffic from a first one of said plurality of ports;
• responsive to said first indication of inappropriate traffic:
• incrementing a reputation score for said first port by a first predetermined amount;
• and
• incrementing a reputation score for a plurality of pairs of ports adjacent to said first port in a port numbering scheme using successively smaller predetermined amounts for each of said pairs of ports successively farther from said first port, wherein each of said successively smaller predetermined amounts is less than said first predetermined amount, wherein ports of a given pair of ports have respective numbers separated in said port numbering scheme by a respective number of said first port;
• and
• passing or blocking said traffic from said plurality of ports, in accordance with a policy based on said incremented reputation scores for said first port and said plurality of pairs of ports adjacent to said first port.