Patent ID: 11916907
Assignee: SOPHOS LIMITED
Field: Digital communication (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H | IPC H

Claim 2:
3. A system comprising:
a first network interface coupled through a second enterprise network with a compute instance, the compute instance belonging to a first enterprise network of a first enterprise;
a second network interface coupled to a public internetwork network;
a firewall coupled to the first network interface and the second network interface, the firewall directly associated with the second enterprise network of a second enterprise different than the first enterprise and coupled to the second enterprise network through the first network interface, and the firewall coupled to the public internetwork through the second network interface; and
a threat management facility, external to the first enterprise network and the second enterprise network, coupled in a communicating relationship with the firewall through the public internetwork, wherein:
the first enterprise network is independent from the second enterprise network, the threat management facility is configured to provide security services independently for authenticated users from each of the first enterprise network of the first enterprise and the second enterprise network of the second enterprise, the threat management facility is configured to manage a security policy for the firewall, and the threat management facility is further configured to cryptographically authenticate a user of the compute instance, verify an association of the user of the compute instance with the first enterprise, and based on authentication of the user with respect to the first enterprise network, operate the firewall directly associated with the second enterprise network to enable the compute instance belonging to the first enterprise network to access the public internetwork via the second enterprise network and through the first and second network interfaces and the firewall according to a policy for trusted guests.