Patent Publication Number: US-2009241192-A1

Title: Virtual machine configuration sharing between host and virtual machines and between virtual machines

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. 12/053,181 filed on Mar. 21, 2008, which is incorporated by reference in its entirety. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND 
     1. Field 
     The present invention is related to computer configuration, and more specifically to the sharing of information between virtual machines. 
     2. Description of the Related Art 
     A computer, as a physical computing machine, may be partitioned or multiplexed into a plurality of virtual computing machines, where each virtual computing machine runs its own operating system. One of the reasons for implementing a virtual computing machine configuration is to establish multiple isolated virtual machines on a single hardware platform. In order to maintain isolation amongst these virtual machines, there is typically no sharing of information or software resources between the virtual machines. However, since all virtual machines on a given physical platform must ultimately share the same hardware resources, such as processing and physical memory resources, there may be limits to how many virtual machines may accommodated on a single physical platform. Today&#39;s computing systems, such as server systems, may have requirements for implementing a virtual computing machine configuration with numbers of virtual computing machines beyond what is currently practical especially in terms of security software and associated processing duplication for each virtual machine. There exists a need for techniques that increase the number of virtual computing machines that may be accommodated on a single physical computing machine platform. 
     SUMMARY 
     In embodiments of the present invention, improved methods are described for presenting a physical computing machine including a virtual computer machine monitor and a one or more of virtual computing machines, where each of the virtual computing machines runs its own operating system, presenting one of the multiple virtual computing machines as a host, and the remaining multiple virtual computing machines as guests, and sharing information related to threat management between at least two of the virtual computing machines including the host, the virtual computer machine monitor, a first guest, and a second guest. The present invention may be implemented as a method on the machine, as a system or apparatus as part of or in relation to the machine, or as a computer program product embodied in a computer readable medium executing on one or more of the machines. 
     In an aspect of the invention, a computer program product may include multiple virtual computing machines on multiple physical machines and information may be shared between virtual machines on different computing machines. In embodiments, the virtual computing machine monitor may be a hypervisor, a software program that may provide virtualization of number of virtual computer machines. Further, in embodiments, the virtual computing machine monitor may run directly on a physical computing machine, in association with an operating system. The physical computing machine may be a client, a server, or some other type of physical computing machine. 
     In embodiments, the sharing of information may be through a sharing facility. The sharing facility may communicate sharing of information directly between virtual computing machines including the host, the virtual computer machine monitor, the first guest, and the second guest. The sharing facility may be a software program with allocated memory. Further, the software program may run on the host, the physical computing machine that may not be a part of virtual computing machine. The allocated memory may be a part of the physical memory. Further, the part of physical memory may be allocated to the host. In embodiments, the sharing facility may store the sharing of information between two or more virtual computing machines including the host, the virtual computer machine monitor, the first guest, and the second guest. In embodiments, the sharing of information between two or more virtual computing machines may conserve a resource in either of the two or more virtual machines. The resource may be conserved through a consolidated memory. Further, the memory usage may be physical memory allocation to the virtual memory of the virtual computing machine. In embodiments, the conserved resource may be a processing resource. Further, the processing resource may be a processing time or removal of a processing requirement on one or more virtual machines. The processing resource may be reduction of processing requirement. 
     In embodiments, sharing information may be associated with a computer security facility. The computer security facility may be minimized within one or more virtual machines. Further, the computer security may be provided in part from outside the virtual computing machine. In embodiments, the computer security facility may be eliminated within one or more virtual machines and the computer security facility may be provided from outside the virtual machine. In embodiments, the computer security facility may be associated with a client firewall. Further, the client firewall may be minimized within a virtual machine. Furthermore, the client firewall may be provided in part provided from outside the virtual machine. In embodiments, the computer security facility may be eliminated form one or more virtual computing machines. Further, the computer security facility may be provided from outside the virtual computing machine. In embodiments, the computer security facility may be associated with network access control. The network access control may be associated with securing one or more virtual machines prior to the network. The network access control may be minimized within the virtual computing machine. Further, the network access control may be provided in part from outside the network. In embodiments, the network access control may be eliminated within a virtual computing machine and may be provided from outside the virtual computing machine. In embodiments, the sharing information may be associated with malware security and control. The malware security and control may not be included as a part of one or more of the virtual computing machines. In embodiments, the malware security and control scanning time may be reduced by offsetting the scans that may be associated with one or more of virtual computing machines. In embodiments, the malware security and control scanning results may be shared between one or more host, the virtual computer machine monitor, the first guest, and the second guest. Further, the sharing information relating to malware security and control may enable the first virtual machine to not replicate scanning that may have been previously executed on the second virtual machine. 
     In embodiments, the sharing information may be associated with configuration information. The configuration information may be associated with firewall configuration information, operating system configuration information, application configuration information, shared settings or some other type of configuration information. The firewall configuration information may be associated with an application rule, a firewall rule, a quarantine rule, a network bridge, a network access or some other type of firewall configuration information. The operating system configuration system may be associated with a process management, a memory management, a disk and file management, networking, security, a graphical a user interface, a device drivers or some other type of operating system configuration. The application configuration information may be associated with product engineering software, enterprise infrastructure software, information software, content access software, simulation software, educational software, media development software, product engineering software or some other type of application configuration information. The configuration information may be associated with shared settings. The shared setting may enable identical firewall settings or identical configuration settings for multiple virtual machines. Further, the shared settings may be associated with a computer security facility, client firewall, network access control or some other type of shared settings. Furthermore, the network access control may be associated with securing one or more virtual machines prior to network connection. In embodiments, the identical configuration settings may be set upon virtual machine creation. In addition, the identical configuration settings may be set when subsequent configuration changes are made in to the host machine. Further, the subsequent configuration changes may be made in association with a policy. 
     In embodiments, the sharing information may be associated with state information. The state information may be associated with scanned files, security and control information associated with a file system common between virtual computing machines, operating system, application software, software testing or some other type of state information. In embodiments, the scanned files may be scanned from inside or outside the virtual computing machine. In embodiments, the operating system state information may be associated with comparing operating system states between two or more of the host, the virtual computer machine monitor, the first guest, and the second guest. 
     In embodiments, the sharing information may be associated with malware detection information. The malware detection information is associated with the examination of files. Further, in embodiments, the examination of files may be associated with malware dictionary of known malware, scanning the file, deleting the file, quarantining the file, repairing the file or some other type of examination of files. Furthermore, the use of the malware dictionary may be associated with comparisons between values from the file and entries in the malware dictionary. In embodiments, malware detection information may be associated with the identification of suspicious behavior from a computer program, the detection of one or more of a virus, worm, phishing attacks, rootkits, Trojan horses, spyware, malware and the like. Further, in embodiments, identification of suspicious behavior may include monitoring the computer program. 
     In an aspect of the invention, a computer program product may present a physical computing machine including a virtual computer machine monitor and multiple virtual computing machines, where each of the multiple virtual computing machines may run its own operating system, presenting one of the multiple virtual computing machines as a host, and the remaining multiple virtual computing machines as guests, providing one or more of the guest virtual computer machines as a protected environment, where the protected environment may be used to isolate suspicious files from one or more of the host and other guest virtual computing machines, and communicating suspicious file information from one or more of the host and guest machines to the protected environment virtual machine for isolation. 
     In embodiments, the virtual machine may act as a sandbox. Further, the sandbox may run an executable code in simulation. Furthermore, when the simulation terminates, errors may be identified or changes may be searched for and may be analyzed for indications of malware. 
     In embodiments, the protected environment may be used for testing. In embodiments, the protected environment may be associated with malware detection. Further, the protected environment may be launched to scan a file. In addition, the isolated suspicious files may be observed for a period of time. In embodiment, the malware detection may be associated with the examination of files, repairing the file, quarantining the file, deleting the file or some other type of examination of file. Furthermore, in embodiments, the examination of files may be associated with a malware dictionary of known malware. The use of the malware dictionary is associated with comparisons between values from the file and entries in the malware dictionary. In embodiments, the malware detection may be associated with the identification of suspicious behavior from the computer program or detection of one or more of a virus, worm, phishing attacks, rootkits, Trojan horses, spyware, malware and the like. Further, the identification of suspicious behavior may include monitoring the computer program. 
     In embodiments, information may be shared between the virtual machine as the protected environment and one or more virtual computing machines including the host, the virtual computer machine monitor, and the guest. In embodiments, the virtual computing machines may be on a second physical computing machine. In embodiments, the shared information is associated with state information. Further, in embodiments, the shared information may be with scanned files. Furthermore, the scanned files may be scanned from inside or outside the virtual computing machine. 
     In an aspect of the invention, a computer program product may conserve computer resources including processing data through the use of a first virtual machine, causing the first virtual machine to share information about the processing of the data with a second virtual machine, and causing the second virtual machine to alter an activity as a result of the shared information. The first and second virtual machines may reside on the same physical machine or on separate physical machines. The shared information may be shared over a network. The shared information may relate to malware that was discovered as a result of the data processing. 
     In an aspect of the invention, a computer program product may conserve computer resources including receiving data from a networked source, processing the data through the use of a first virtual machine, and causing the first virtual machine to share information about the processing of the data with a second virtual machine, wherein, in response to receiving the shared information, the second virtual machine does not process the data. The first and second virtual machines may reside on the same physical machine or on separate physical machines. The shared information may be shared over a network. The shared information may relate to malware that was discovered as a result of the data processing. 
     In an aspect of the invention, a computer program product may conserve computer resources including receiving data from a networked source, processing the data through the use of a first virtual machine, and causing the first virtual machine to share information about the processing of the data with a second virtual machine, wherein, in response to receiving the shared information, the second virtual machine processes the data. The first and second virtual machines may reside on the same physical machine or on separate physical machines. The shared information may be shared over a network. The shared information may relate to malware that was discovered as a result of the data processing. 
     In an aspect of the invention, a computer program product may conserve computer resources including processing data through the use of a first virtual machine, causing the first virtual machine to share information about the processing of the data with a host; and causing the host to share the information with a second virtual machine to alter an activity of the second virtual machine. The first and second virtual machines may reside on the same physical machine or on separate physical machines. The shared information may be shared over a network. The shared information may relate to malware that was discovered as a result of the data processing. The shared information may be associated with configuration information. The configuration information may be associated with firewall configuration information. The firewall configuration information may be associated with at least one of an application rule, a firewall rule, a quarantine rule, a network bridge, and network access. The configuration information may be associated with operating system configuration information. The configuration information may be associated with application configuration information. The information is associated with state information. The state information may be associated with scanned files. The scanned files may be scanned from inside the virtual computing machine. The scanned files may be scanned from outside the virtual computing machine. The state information may be security and control information associated with a file system common between virtual computing machines. The information may be associated with at least one of malware detection, an application state, and an operating system state. 
     In an aspect of the invention, a computer program product may conserve computer resources including processing data through the use of a first virtual machine, causing the first virtual machine to share information about the processing of the data with a host, and in response to receiving the shared information, causing the host to instruct a second virtual machine to alter an activity of the second virtual machine. The first and second virtual machines may reside on the same physical machine or on separate physical machines. The shared information may be shared over a network. The shared information may relate to malware that was discovered as a result of the data processing. The shared information may be associated with configuration information. The configuration information may be associated with firewall configuration information. The firewall configuration information may be associated with at least one of an application rule, a firewall rule, a quarantine rule, a network bridge, and network access. The configuration information may be associated with operating system configuration information. The configuration information may be associated with application configuration information. The information is associated with state information. The state information may be associated with scanned files. The scanned files may be scanned from inside the virtual computing machine. The scanned files may be scanned from outside the virtual computing machine. The state information may be security and control information associated with a file system common between virtual computing machines. The information may be associated with at least one of malware detection, an application state, and an operating system state. 
     In an aspect of the invention, a computer program product may conserve computer resources including processing data through the use of a first virtual machine, causing the first virtual machine to share information about the processing of the data with a host, and in response to receiving the shared information, causing the host to instruct a second virtual machine not to process the data. The first and second virtual machines may reside on the same physical machine or on separate physical machines. The shared information may be shared over a network. The shared information may relate to malware that was discovered as a result of the data processing. The shared information may be associated with configuration information. The configuration information may be associated with firewall configuration information. The firewall configuration information may be associated with at least one of an application rule, a firewall rule, a quarantine rule, a network bridge, and network access. The configuration information may be associated with operating system configuration information. The configuration information may be associated with application configuration information. The information is associated with state information. The state information may be associated with scanned files. The scanned files may be scanned from inside the virtual computing machine. The scanned files may be scanned from outside the virtual computing machine. The state information may be security and control information associated with a file system common between virtual computing machines. The information may be associated with at least one of malware detection, an application state, and an operating system state. 
     In an aspect of the invention, a computer program product may conserve computer resources including processing data through the use of a first virtual machine, causing the first virtual machine to share information about the processing of the data with a host; and in response to receiving the shared information, causing the host to instruct a second virtual machine to process the data. The first and second virtual machines may reside on the same physical machine or on separate physical machines. The shared information may be shared over a network. The shared information may relate to malware that was discovered as a result of the data processing. The shared information may be associated with configuration information. The configuration information may be associated with firewall configuration information. The firewall configuration information may be associated with at least one of an application rule, a firewall rule, a quarantine rule, a network bridge, and network access. The configuration information may be associated with operating system configuration information. The configuration information may be associated with application configuration information. The information is associated with state information. The state information may be associated with scanned files. The scanned files may be scanned from inside the virtual computing machine. The scanned files may be scanned from outside the virtual computing machine. The state information may be security and control information associated with a file system common between virtual computing machines. The information may be associated with at least one of malware detection, an application state, and an operating system state. 
     In an aspect of the invention, a computer program product may conserve computer resources including receiving data from a networked source, processing the data through the use of a first virtual machine, causing the first virtual machine to share information about the processing of the data with a host, and in response to receiving the shared information, causing the host to share the information with a second virtual machine. The first and second virtual machines may reside on the same physical machine or on separate physical machines. The shared information may be shared over a network. The shared information may relate to malware that was discovered as a result of the data processing. The shared information may be associated with configuration information. The configuration information may be associated with firewall configuration information. The firewall configuration information may be associated with at least one of an application rule, a firewall rule, a quarantine rule, a network bridge, and network access. The configuration information may be associated with operating system configuration information. The configuration information may be associated with application configuration information. The information is associated with state information. The state information may be associated with scanned files. The scanned files may be scanned from inside the virtual computing machine. The scanned files may be scanned from outside the virtual computing machine. The state information may be security and control information associated with a file system common between virtual computing machines. The information may be associated with at least one of malware detection, an application state, and an operating system state. 
     In an aspect of the invention, a computer program product may conserve computer resources including receiving data from a networked source, processing the data through the use of a first virtual machine, causing the first virtual machine to share information about the processing of the data with a host, and in response to receiving the shared information, causing the host to instruct a second virtual machine to process the data. The first and second virtual machines may reside on the same physical machine or on separate physical machines. The shared information may be shared over a network. The shared information may relate to malware that was discovered as a result of the data processing. The shared information may be associated with configuration information. The configuration information may be associated with firewall configuration information. The firewall configuration information may be associated with at least one of an application rule, a firewall rule, a quarantine rule, a network bridge, and network access. The configuration information may be associated with operating system configuration information. The configuration information may be associated with application configuration information. The information is associated with state information. The state information may be associated with scanned files. The scanned files may be scanned from inside the virtual computing machine. The scanned files may be scanned from outside the virtual computing machine. The state information may be security and control information associated with a file system common between virtual computing machines. The information may be associated with at least one of malware detection, an application state, and an operating system state. 
     In an aspect of the invention, a computer program product may conserve computer resources including receiving data from a networked source, processing the data through the use of a first virtual machine, causing the first virtual machine to share information about the processing of the data with a host, and in response to receiving the shared information, causing the host to instruct a second virtual machine not to process the data. The first and second virtual machines may reside on the same physical machine or on separate physical machines. The shared information may be shared over a network. The shared information may relate to malware that was discovered as a result of the data processing. The shared information may be associated with configuration information. The configuration information may be associated with firewall configuration information. The firewall configuration information may be associated with at least one of an application rule, a firewall rule, a quarantine rule, a network bridge, and network access. The configuration information may be associated with operating system configuration information. The configuration information may be associated with application configuration information. The information is associated with state information. The state information may be associated with scanned files. The scanned files may be scanned from inside the virtual computing machine. The scanned files may be scanned from outside the virtual computing machine. The state information may be security and control information associated with a file system common between virtual computing machines. The information may be associated with at least one of malware detection, an application state, and an operating system state. 
     In an aspect of the invention, a computer program product may conserve computer resources including scanning data received from a networked source, causing a first virtual machine to take an action based on the scanned data, causing the first virtual machine to share information about the action with a second virtual machine to alter a process of the second virtual machine. The first and second virtual machines may reside on the same physical machine or on separate physical machines. The shared information may be shared over a network. The shared information may relate to malware that was discovered as a result of the data processing. The scanning may be done through a physical machine. 
     In an aspect of the invention, a computer program product may conserve computer resources including scanning data received from a networked source, causing a first virtual machine to take an action based on the scanned data, causing the first virtual machine to share information about the action with a host to manage a second virtual machine&#39;s processes. The first and second virtual machines may reside on the same physical machine or on separate physical machines. The shared information may be shared over a network. The shared information may relate to malware that was discovered as a result of the data processing. Scanning may be done through a physical machine. 
     These and other systems, methods, objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment and the drawings. All documents mentioned herein are hereby incorporated in their entirety by reference. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES 
       The invention and the following detailed description of certain embodiments thereof may be understood by reference to the following figures: 
         FIG. 1  depicts a block diagram of the threat management facility providing protection to an enterprise against a plurality of threats. 
         FIG. 2  shows an embodiment of a physical computing machine partitioned into virtual computing machines, including associated sharing and management facilities. 
         FIG. 3  shows an embodiment of a flow chart for sharing information of a threat management facility. 
         FIG. 4  shows an embodiment of a flow chart for isolating suspicious information in a protected environment using virtual machines. 
     
    
    
     While the invention has been described in connection with certain preferred embodiments, other embodiments would be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art and are encompassed herein. 
     All documents referenced herein are hereby incorporated by reference. 
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       FIG. 1  depicts a block diagram of a threat management facility providing protection to an enterprise against a plurality of threats. An aspect of the present invention relates to corporate policy management and implementation through a unified threat management facility  100 . As will be explained in more detail below, a threat management facility  100  is used to protect computer assets from many threats, both computer-generated threats and user-generated threats. The threat management facility  100  is multi-dimensional in that it is designed to protect corporate assets from a variety of threats and it is adapted to learn about threats in one dimension (e.g. worm detection) and apply the knowledge in another dimension (e.g. spam detection). Corporate policy management is one of the dimensions for which the threat management facility can control. The corporation may institute a policy that prevents certain people (e.g. employees, groups of employees, types of employees, guest of the corporation, etc.) from accessing certain types of computer programs. For example, the corporation may elect to prevent its accounting department from using a particular version of an instant messaging service or all such services. In this example, the policy management facility  112  may be used to update the policies of all corporate computing assets with a proper policy control facility or it may update a select few. By using the threat management facility  100  to facilitate the setting, updating and control of such policies the corporation only needs to be concerned with keeping the threat management facility  100  up to date on such policies. The threat management facility  100  can take care of updating all of the other corporate computing assets. 
     It should be understood that the threat management facility  100  may provide multiple services and policy management may be offered as one of the services. We will now turn to a description of the threat management system  100   
     Over recent years, malware has become a major problem across the internet  154 . From both technical and user perspectives, the categorization of a specific threat type, whether as virus, worm, spam, phishing exploration, spyware, adware, or the like, is becoming reduced in significance. The threat, no matter how it&#39;s categorized, may need to be stopped at all points of the enterprise facility  102 , including laptop, desktop, server facility  142 , gateway, and the like. Similarly, there may be less and less benefit to the user in having different solutions for known and unknown threats. As such, a consolidated threat management facility  100  may need to be applied to the same set of technologies and capabilities for all threats. The threat management facility  100  may provide a single agent on the desktop, and a single scan of any suspect file. This approach may eliminate the inevitable overlaps and gaps in protection caused by treating viruses and spyware as separate problems, while simultaneously simplifying administration and minimizing desktop load. As the number and range of types of threats has increased, so may have the level of connectivity available to all IT users. This may have lead to a rapid increase in the speed at which threats may move. Today, an unprotected PC connected to the internet  154  may be infected quickly (perhaps within 10 minutes) which may require acceleration for the delivery of threat protection. Where once monthly updates may have been sufficient, the threat management facility  100  may automatically and seamlessly update its product set against spam and virus threats quickly, for instance, every five minutes, every minute, continuously, or the like. Analysis and testing may be increasingly automated, and also may be performed more frequently; for instance, it may be completed in 15 minutes, and may do so without compromising quality. The threat management facility  100  may also extend techniques that may have been developed for virus and malware protection, and provide them to enterprise facility  102  network administrators to better control their environments. In addition to stopping malicious code, the threat management facility  100  may provide policy management that may be able to control legitimate applications, such as VoIP, instant messaging, peer-to-peer file-sharing, and the like, that may undermine productivity and network performance within the enterprise facility  102 . 
     The threat management facility  100  may provide an enterprise facility  102  protection from computer-based malware, including viruses, spyware, adware, Trojans, intrusion, spam, policy abuse, uncontrolled access, and the like, where the enterprise facility  102  may be any entity with a networked computer-based infrastructure. In an embodiment,  FIG. 1  may depict a block diagram of the threat management facility providing protection to an enterprise against a plurality of threats. The enterprise facility  102  may be corporate, commercial, educational, governmental, or the like, and the enterprise facility&#39;s  102  computer network may be distributed amongst a plurality of facilities, and in a plurality of geographical locations. The threat management facility  100  may include a plurality of functions, such as security management facility  122 , policy management facility  112 , update facility  120 , definitions facility  114 , network access rules facility  124 , remedial action facility  128 , detection techniques facility  130 , testing facility  118 , threat research facility  132 , and the like. In embodiments, the threat protection provided by the threat management facility  100  may extend beyond the network boundaries of the enterprise facility  102  to include client facility&#39;s  144  that have moved into network connectivity not directly associated or controlled by the enterprise facility  102 . Threats to enterprise facility  102  client facilities  144  may come from a plurality of sources, such as from network threats  104 , physical proximity threats  110 , secondary location threats  108 , and the like. In embodiments, the threat management facility  100  may provide an enterprise facility  102  protection from a plurality of threats to multiplatform computer resources in a plurality of locations and network configurations, with an integrated system approach. 
     In embodiments, the threat management facility  100  may be provided as a stand-alone solution. In other embodiments, the threat management facility  100  may be integrated into a third-party product. An application programming interface (e.g. a source code interface) may be provided such that the threat management facility  100  may be integrated. For instance, the threat management facility  100  may be stand-alone in that it provides direct threat protection to an enterprise or computer resource, where protection is subscribed to directly  100 . Alternatively, the threat management facility may offer protection indirectly, through a third-party product, where an enterprise may subscribe to services through the third-party product, and threat protection to the enterprise may be provided by the threat management facility  100  through the third-party product. 
     The security management facility  122  may include a plurality of elements that provide protection from malware to enterprise facility  102  computer resources, including endpoint security and control, email security and control, web security and control, reputation-based filtering, control of unauthorized users, control of guest and non-compliant computers, and the like. The security management facility  122  may be a software application that may provide malicious code and malicious application protection to a client facility  144  computing resource. The security management facility  122  may have the ability to scan the client facility  144  files for malicious code, remove or quarantine certain applications and files, prevent certain actions, perform remedial actions and perform other security measures. In embodiments, scanning the client facility  144  may include scanning some or all of the files stored to the client facility  144  on a periodic basis, may scan applications once the application has been requested to execute, may scan files as the files are transmitted to or from the client facility  144 , or the like. The scanning of the applications and files may be to detect known malicious code or known unwanted applications. In an embodiment, new malicious code and unwanted applications may be continually developed and distributed, and updates to the known code database may be provided on a periodic basis, on a demand basis, on an alert basis, or the like. 
     In an embodiment, the security management facility  122  may provide for email security and control, where security management may help to eliminate spam, viruses, spyware and phishing, control of email content, and the like. The security management facilities  122  email security and control may protect against inbound and outbound threats, protect email infrastructure, prevent data leakage, provide spam filtering, and the like. In an embodiment, security management facility  122  may provide for web security and control, where security management may help to detect or block viruses, spyware, malware, unwanted applications, help control web browsing, and the like, which may provide comprehensive web access control enabling safe, productive web browsing. Web security and control may provide internet use policies, reporting on suspect devices, security and content filtering, active monitoring of network traffic, URI filtering, and the like. In an embodiment, the security management facility  122  may provide for network access control, which may provide control over network connections. Network control may stop unauthorized, guest, or non-compliant systems from accessing networks, and may control network traffic that may not be bypassed from the client level. In addition, network access control may control access to virtual private networks (VPN), where VPNs may be a communications network tunneled through another network, establishing a logical connection acting as a virtual network. In embodiments, a VPN may be treated in the same manner as a physical network. 
     In an embodiment, the security management facility  122  may provide for host intrusion prevention through behavioral based protection, which may guard against unknown threats by analyzing behavior before software code executes. Behavioral based protection may monitor code when it runs and intervene if the code is deemed to be suspicious or malicious. Advantages of behavioral based protection over runtime protection may include code being prevented from running, whereas runtime protection may only interrupt code that has already partly executed; behavioral protection may identify malicious code at the gateway or on the file servers and deletes it before reaching end-point computers and the like. 
     In an embodiment, the security management facility  122  may provide for reputation filtering, which may target or identify sources of known malware. For instance, reputation filtering may include lists of URIs of known sources of malware or known suspicious IP addresses, or domains, say for spam, that when detected may invoke an action by the threat management facility  100 , such as dropping them immediately. By dropping the source before any interaction can initiate, potential threat sources may be thwarted before any exchange of data can be made. 
     In embodiments, information may be sent from the enterprise back to a third party, a vendor, or the like, which may lead to improved performance of the threat management facility  100 . For example, the types, times, and number of virus interactions that a client experiences may provide useful information for the preventions of future virus threats. This type of feedback may be useful for any aspect of threat detection. Feedback of information may also be associated with behaviors of individuals within the enterprise, such as being associated with most common violations of policy, network access, unauthorized application loading, unauthorized external device use, and the like. In embodiments, this type of information feedback may enable the evaluation or profiling of client actions that are violations of policy that may provide a predictive model for the improvement of enterprise policies. 
     In an embodiment, the security management facility  122  may provide for the overall security of the enterprise facility  102  network or set of enterprise facility  102  networks, may provide updates of malicious code information to the enterprise facility  102  network, and associated client facilities  144 . The updates may be a planned update, an update in reaction to a threat notice, an update in reaction to a request for an update, an update based on a search of known malicious code information, or the like. The administration facility  134  may provide control over the security management facility  122  when updates are performed. The updates may be automatically transmitted without an administration facility&#39;s  134  direct control, manually transmitted by the administration facility  134 , or the like. The security management facility  122  may include the management of receiving malicious code descriptions from a provider, distribution of malicious code descriptions to enterprise facility  102  networks, distribution of malicious code descriptions to client facilities  144 , or the like. In an embodiment, the management of malicious code information may be provided to the enterprise facility&#39;s  102  network, where the enterprise facility&#39;s  102  network may provide the malicious code information through the enterprise facility&#39;s  102  network distribution system. 
     The threat management facility  100  may provide a policy management facility  112  that may be able to block non-malicious applications, such as VoIP  164 , instant messaging  162 , peer-to-peer file-sharing, and the like, that may undermine productivity and network performance within the enterprise facility  102 . The policy management facility  112  may be a set of rules or policies that may indicate enterprise facility  102  access permissions for the client facility  144 , such as access permissions associated with the network, applications, external computer devices, and the like. The policy management facility  112  may include a database, a text file, a combination of databases and text files, or the like. In an embodiment, a policy database may be a block list, a black list, an allowed list, a white list, or the like that may provide a list of enterprise facility  102  external network locations/applications that may or may not be accessed by the client facility  144 . The policy management facility  112  may include rules that may be interpreted with respect to an enterprise facility  102  network access request to determine if the request should be allowed. The rules may provide a generic rule for the type of access that may be granted; the rules may be related to the policies of an enterprise facility  102  for access rights for the enterprise facility&#39;s  102  client facility  144 . For example, there may be a rule that does not permit access to sporting websites. When a website is requested by the client facility  144 , a security facility may access the rules within a policy facility to determine if the requested access is related to a sporting website. In an embodiment, the security facility may analyze the requested website to determine if the website matches with any of the policy facility rules. 
     The policy management facility  112  may be similar to the security management facility  122  but with the addition of enterprise facility  102  wide access rules and policies that may be distributed to maintain control of client facility  144  access to enterprise facility  102  network resources. The policies may be defined for application type, subset of application capabilities, organization hierarchy, computer facility type, user type, network location, time of day, connection type, or the like. Policies may be maintained by the administration facility  134 , through the threat management facility  100 , in association with a third party, or the like. For example, a policy may restrict IM  162  activity to only support personnel for communicating with customers. This may allow communication for departments requiring access, but may maintain the network bandwidth for other activities by restricting the use of IM  162  to only the personnel that need access to IM  162  in support of the enterprise facility  102 . In an embodiment, the policy management facility  112  may be a stand-alone application, may be part of the network server facility  142 , may be part of the enterprise facility  102  network, may be part of the client facility  144 , or the like. 
     In embodiments, the threat management facility  100  may provide configuration management, which may be similar to policy management, but may specifically examine the configuration set of applications, operating systems, hardware, and the like, and managing changes to their configurations. Assessment of a configuration may be made against a standard configuration policy, detection of configuration changes, remediation of improper configuration, application of new configurations, and the like. An enterprise may keep a set of standard configuration rules and policies which may represent the desired state of the device. For example, a client firewall may be running and installed, but in the disabled state, where remediation may be to enable the firewall. In another example, the enterprise may set a rule that disallows the use of USB disks, and sends a configuration change to all clients, which turns off USB drive access via a registry. 
     In embodiments, the threat management facility  100  may also provide for the removal of applications that may interfere with the operation of the threat management facility  100 , such as competitor products that may also be attempting similar threat management functions. The removal of such products may be initiated automatically whenever such products are detected. In the case where such applications are services are provided indirectly through a third-party product, the application may be suspended until action is taken to remove or disable the third-party product&#39;s protection facility. 
     Threat management against a sometimes quickly evolving malware environment may require timely updates, and the update management facility  120  may be provided by the threat management facility  100 . In addition, a policy management facility  112  may also require update management (e.g. as provided by the update facility  120  herein described), as the enterprise facility  102  requirements for policies change enterprise facility  102 , client facility  144 , server facility  142  enterprise facility  102 . The update management for the security facility  122  and policy management facility  112  may be provided directly by the threat management facility  100 , such as by a hosted system or in conjunction with the administration facility  134 . In embodiments, the threat management facility  100  may provide for patch management, where a patch may be an update to an operating system, an application, a system tool, or the like, where one of the reasons for the patch is to reduce vulnerability to threats. 
     In embodiments, the security facility  122  and policy management facility  112  may push information to the enterprise facility  102  network and/or client facility  144 , the enterprise facility  102  network and/or client facility  144  may pull information from the security facility  122  and policy management facility  112  network server facilities  142 , there may be a combination of pushing and pulling of information between the security facility  122  and the policy management facility  112  network servers  142 , enterprise facility  102  network, and client facilities  144 , or the like. For example, the enterprise facility  102  network and/or client facility  144  may pull information from the security facility  122  and policy management facility  112  network server facility  142  may request the information using the security facility  122  and policy management facility  112  update module; the request may be based on a certain time period, by a certain time, by a date, on demand, or the like. In another example, the security facility  122  and policy management facility  112  network servers  142  may push the information to the enterprise facility&#39;s  102  network and/or client facility  144  by providing notification that there are updates available for download and then transmitting the information. The combination of the security management  122  network server facility  142  and security update module may function substantially the same as the policy management facility  112  network server and policy update module by providing information to the enterprise facility  102  network and the client facility  144  in a push or pull method. In an embodiment, the policy management facility  112  and the security facility  122  management update modules may work in concert to provide all the needed information to the enterprise facility&#39;s  102  network and/or client facility  144  for control of application execution. In an embodiment, the policy update module and security update module may be combined into a single update module. 
     As threats are identified and characterized, the threat management facility  100  may create definition updates that may be used to allow the threat management facility  100  to detect and remediate the latest malicious software, unwanted applications, configuration and policy changes, and the like. The threat definition facility  114  may contain threat identification updates, also referred to as definition files. A definition file may be a virus identity file that may include definitions of known or potential malicious code. The virus identity (IDE) definition files may provide information that may identify malicious code within files, applications, or the like. The definition files may be accessed by security management facility  122  when scanning files or applications within the client facility  144  for the determination of malicious code that may be within the file or application. The definition files may contain a number of commands, definitions, or instructions, to be parsed and acted upon, or the like. In embodiments, the client facility  144  may be updated with new definition files periodically to provide the client facility  144  with the most recent malicious code definitions; the updating may be performed on a set time period, may be updated on demand from the client facility  144 , may be updated on demand from the network, may be updated on a received malicious code alert, or the like. In an embodiment, the client facility  144  may request an update to the definition files from an update facility  120  within the network, may request updated definition files from a computing facility external to the network, updated definition files may be provided to the client facility  114  from within the network, definition files may be provided to the client facility  144  from an external computing facility from an external network, or the like. 
     In an embodiment, a definition management facility  114  may provide for the timely updates of definition files information to the network, client facilities  144 , and the like. New and altered malicious code and malicious applications may be continually created and distributed to networks worldwide. The definition files that maintain the definitions of the malicious code and malicious application information for the protection of the networks and client facilities  144  may need continual updating to provide continual defense of the network and client facility  144  from the malicious code and malicious applications. The definition files management may provide for automatic and manual methods of updating the definition files. In embodiments, the network may receive definition files and distribute the definition files to the network client facilities  144 , the client facilities  144  may receive the definition files directly, or the network and client facilities  144  may both receive the definition files, or the like. In an embodiment, the definition files may be updated on a fixed periodic basis, on demand by the network and/or the client facility  144 , as a result of an alert of a new malicious code or malicious application, or the like. In an embodiment, the definition files may be released as a supplemental file to an existing definition files to provide for rapid updating of the definition files. 
     In a similar manner, the security management facility  122  may be used to scan an outgoing file and verify that the outgoing file is permitted to be transmitted per the enterprise facility  102  rules and policies. By checking outgoing files, the security management facility  122  may be able discover malicious code infected files that were not detected as incoming files as a result of the client facility  144  having been updated with either new definition files or policy management facility  112  information. The definition files may discover the malicious code infected file by having received updates of developing malicious code from the administration facility  134 , updates from a definition files provider, or the like. The policy management facility  112  may discover the malicious code infected file by having received new updates from the administration facility  134 , from a rules provider, or the like. 
     The threat management facility  100  may provide for a way to control access to the enterprise facility  102  networks. For instance, the enterprise facility  102  may want to restrict access to certain applications, networks, files, printers, servers, databases, or the like. In addition, the enterprise facility  102  may want to restrict user access under certain conditions, such as the user&#39;s location, usage history, need to know, job position, connection type, time of day, method of authentication, client-system configuration, or the like. Network access rules may be developed by the enterprise facility  102 , or pre-packaged by a supplier, and managed by the threat management facility  100  in conjunction with the administration facility  134 . Network access rules and control may be responsible for determining if a client facility  144  application should be granted access to a requested network location. The network location may be on the same network as the facility or may be on another network. In an embodiment, the network access control may verify access rights for client facilities  144  from within the network or may verify access rights of computer facilities from external networks. When network access for a client facility  144  is denied, the network access control may send an information file to the client facility  144 , the information file may contain data or commands that may provide instructions for the remedial action facility  128 . The information sent by the network access facility  124  control may be a data file. The data file may contain a number of commands, definitions, instructions, or commands to be parsed and acted upon through the remedial action facility  128 , or the like. The information sent by the network access facility  124  control may be a command or command file that the remedial action facility  128  may access and take action upon. 
     In an embodiment, the network access rules  124  may provide an information store to be accessed by the network access control. The network access rules facility  124  may include databases such as a block list, a black list, an allowed list, a white list, an unacceptable network site database, an acceptable network site database, a network site reputation database, or the like of network access locations that may or may not be accessed by the client facility  144 . Additionally, the network access rules facility  124  may incorporate rule evaluation; the rule evaluation may parse network access requests and apply the parsed information to network access rules. The network access rule facility  124  may have a generic set of rules that may be in support of an enterprise facility&#39;s  102  network access policies, such as denying access to certain types of websites  158 , controlling instant messenger  162  accesses, or the like. Rule evaluation may include regular expression rule evaluation, or other rule evaluation method for interpreting the network access request and comparing the interpretation to the established rules for network access. In an embodiment, the network access rules facility  124  may receive a rules evaluation request from the network access control and may return the rules evaluation to the network access control. 
     Similar to the threat definitions facility  114 , the network access rule facility  124  may provide updated rules and policies to the enterprise facility  102 . The network access rules facility  124  may be maintained by the network administration facility  134 , using network access rules facility  124  management. In an embodiment, the network administration facility  134  may be able to maintain a set of access rules manually by adding rules, changing rules, deleting rules, or the like. Additionally, the administration facility  134  may be able to retrieve predefined rule sets from a provider that may provide a set of rules to be applied to an entire enterprise facility  102 . The network administration facility  134  may be able to modify the predefined rules as needed for a particular enterprise facility  102  using the network access rules management facility  124 . 
     When a threat or policy violation is detected by the threat management facility  100 , the threat management facility  100  may provide for a remedial action facility  128 . Remedial action may take a plurality of forms, such as terminating or modifying an ongoing process or interaction, sending a warning to a client or administration facility  134  of an ongoing process or interaction, executing a program or application to remediate against a threat or violation, record interactions for subsequent evaluation, or the like. Remedial action may be associated with an application that responds to information that a client facility  144  network access request has been denied. In an embodiment, when the data file is received, remedial action may parse the data file, interpret the various aspects of the data file, and act on the parsed data file information to determine actions to be taken on an application requesting access to a denied network location. In an embodiment, when the data file is received, remedial action may access the threat definitions to parse the data file and determine an action to be taken on an application requesting access to a denied network location. In an embodiment, the information received from the facility may be a command or a command file. The remedial action facility may carry out any commands that are received or parsed from a data file from the facility without performing any interpretation of the commands. In an embodiment, the remedial action facility may interact with the received information and may perform various actions on a client requesting access to a denied network location. The action may be one or more of continuing to block all requests to a denied network location, a malicious code scan on the application, a malicious code scan on the client facility  144 , quarantine of the application, terminating the application, isolation of the application, isolation of the client facility  144  to a location within the network that restricts network access, blocking a network access port from a client facility  144 , reporting the application to a administration facility  134 , or the like. 
     Remedial action may be provided as a result of a detection of a threat or violation. The detection techniques facility  130  may include monitoring the enterprise facility  102  network or end-point devices, such as by monitoring streaming data through the gateway, across the network, through routers and hubs, and the like. The detection techniques facility  130  may include monitoring activity and stored files on computing facilities, such as on server facilities  142 , desktop computers, laptop computers, other mobile computing devices, and the like. Detection techniques, such as scanning a computer&#39;s stored files, may provide the capability of checking files for stored threats, either in the active or passive state. Detection techniques, such as streaming file management, may provide the capability of checking files received at the network, gateway facility, client facility  144 , and the like. This may provide the capability of not allowing a streaming file or portions of the streaming file containing malicious code from entering the client facility  144 , gateway facility, or network. In an embodiment, the streaming file may be broken into blocks of information, and a plurality of virus identities may be used to check each of the blocks of information for malicious code. In an embodiment, any blocks that are not determined to be clear of malicious code may not be delivered to the client facility  144 , gateway facility, or network. 
     Verifying that the threat management facility  100  is detecting threats and violations to established policy, may require the ability to test the system, either at the system level or for a particular computing component. The testing facility  118  may allow the administration facility  134  to coordinate the testing of the security configurations of client facility  144  computing facilities on a network. The administration facility  134  may be able to send test files to a set of client facility  144  computing facilities to test the ability of the client facility  144  to determine acceptability of the test file. After the test file has been transmitted, a recording facility may record the actions taken by the client facility  144  in reaction to the test file. The recording facility may aggregate the testing information from the client facility  144  and report the testing information to the administration facility  134 . The administration facility  134  may be able to determine the level of preparedness of the client facility  144  computing facilities by the reported information. Remedial action may be taken for any of the client facility  144  computing facilities as determined by the administration facility  134 ; remedial action may be taken by the administration facility  134  or by the user of the client facility  144 . 
     The threat research facility  132  may provide a continuously ongoing effort to maintain the threat protection capabilities of the threat management facility  100  in light of continuous generation of new or evolved forms of malware. Threat research may include researchers and analysts working on known and emerging malware, such as viruses, rootkits a spyware, as well as other computer threats such as phishing, spam, scams, and the like. In embodiments, through threat research, the threat management facility  100  may be able to provide swift, global responses to the latest threats. 
     The threat management facility  100  may provide threat protection to the enterprise facility  102 , where the enterprise facility  102  may include a plurality of networked components, such as client facility  144 , server facility  142 , administration facility  134 , firewall  138 , gateway, hubs  148 , routers, threat management appliance  140 , desktop users, mobile users, and the like. In embodiments, it may be the end-point computer security facility  152 , located on a computer&#39;s desktop, which may provide threat protection to a user, and associated enterprise facility  102 . In embodiments, the term end-point may refer to a computer system that may source data, receive data, evaluate data, buffer data, or the like (such as a user&#39;s desktop computer as an end-point computer), a firewall as a data evaluation end-point computer system, a laptop as a mobile end-point computer, a PDA as a hand-held end-point computer. In embodiments, end-point may refer to a source or destination for data, including such components where the destination is characterized by an evaluation point for data, and where the data may be sent to a subsequent destination after evaluation. The end-point computer security facility  152  may be an application loaded onto the computer platform or computer support component, where the application may accommodate the plurality of computer platforms and/or functional requirements of the component. For instance, a client facility  144  computer may be one of a plurality of computer platforms, such as Windows, Macintosh, Linux, and the like, where the end-point computer security facility  152  may be adapted to the specific platform, while maintaining a uniform product and product services across platforms. Additionally, components may have different functions to serve within the enterprise facility&#39;s  102  networked computer-based infrastructure. For instance, computer support components provided as hubs  148 , routers, server facility  142 , firewalls  138 , and the like, may require unique security application software to protect their portion of the system infrastructure, while providing an element in an integrated threat management system that extends out beyond the threat management facility  100  to incorporate all computer resources under its protection. 
     The enterprise facility  102  may include a plurality of client facility  144  computing platforms on which the end-point computer security facility  152  is adapted. A client facility  144  computing platform may be a computer system that is able to access a service on another computer, such as a server facility  142 , via a network. This client facility  144  server facility  142  model may apply to a plurality of networked applications, such as a client facility  144  connecting to an enterprise facility  102  application server facility  142 , a web browser client facility  144  connecting to a web server facility  142 , an e-mail client facility  144  retrieving e-mail from an internet  154  service provider&#39;s mail storage servers  142 , and the like. In embodiments, traditional large client facility  144  applications may be switched to websites, which may increase the browser&#39;s role as a client facility  144 . Clients  144  may be classified as a function of the extent to which they perform their own processing. For instance, client facilities  144  are sometimes classified as a fat client facility  144  or thin client facility  144 . The fat client facility  144 , also known as a thick client facility  144  or rich client facility  144 , may be a client facility  144  that performs the bulk of data processing operations itself, and does not necessarily rely on the server facility  142 . The fat client facility  144  may be most common in the form of a personal computer, where the personal computer may operate independent of any server facility  142 . Programming environments for fat clients  144  may include CURI, Delphi, Droplets, Java, win32, X11, and the like. Thin clients  144  may offer minimal processing capabilities, for instance, the thin client facility  144  may primarily provide a graphical user interface provided by an application server facility  142 , which may perform the bulk of any required data processing. Programming environments for thin clients  144  may include JavaScript/AJAX, ASP, JSP, Ruby on Rails, Python&#39;s Django, PHP, and the like. The client facility  144  may also be a mix of the two, such as processing data locally, but relying on a server facility  142  for data storage. As a result, this hybrid client facility  144  may provide benefits from both the fat client facility  144  type, such as multimedia support and high performance, and the thin client facility  144  type, such as high manageability and flexibility. In embodiments, the threat management facility  100 , and associated end-point computer security facility  152 , may provide seamless threat protection to the plurality of clients  144 , and client facility  144  types, across the enterprise facility  102 . 
     The enterprise facility  102  may include a plurality of server facilities  142 , such as application servers, communications servers, file servers, database servers, proxy servers, mail servers, fax servers, game servers, web servers, and the like. A server facility  142 , which may also be referred to as a server facility  142  application, server facility  142  operating system, server facility  142  computer, or the like, may be an application program or operating system that accepts client facility  144  connections in order to service requests from clients  144 . The server facility  142  application may run on the same computer as the client facility  144  using it, or the server facility  142  and the client facility  144  may be running on different computers and communicating across the network. Server facility  142  applications may be divided among server facility  142  computers, with the dividing depending upon the workload. For instance, under light load conditions all server facility  142  applications may run on a single computer and under heavy load conditions a single server facility  142  application may run on multiple computers. In embodiments, the threat management facility  100  may provide threat protection to server facilities  142  within the enterprise facility  102  as load conditions and application changes are made. 
     A server facility  142  may also be an appliance facility  140 , where the appliance facility  140  provides specific services onto the network. Though the appliance facility  140  is a server facility  142  computer, that may be loaded with a server facility  142  operating system and server facility  142  application, the enterprise facility  102  user may not need to configure it, as the configuration may have been performed by a third party. In an embodiment, an enterprise facility  102  appliance may be a server facility  142  appliance that has been configured and adapted for use with the threat management facility  100 , and located within the facilities of the enterprise facility  102 . The enterprise facility&#39;s  102  threat management appliance may enable the enterprise facility  102  to administer an on-site local managed threat protection configuration, where the administration facility  134  may access the threat resources through an interface, such as a web portal. In an alternate embodiment, the enterprise facility  102  may be managed remotely from a third party, vendor, or the like, without an appliance facility  140  located within the enterprise facility  102 . In this instance, the appliance functionality may be a shared hardware product between pluralities of enterprises  102 . In embodiments, the appliance facility  140  may be located at the enterprise facility  102 , where the enterprise facility  102  maintains a degree of control. In embodiments, a hosted service may be provided, where the appliance  140  may still be an on-site black box to the enterprise facility  102 , physically placed there because of infrastructure requirements, but managed by a third party, vendor, or the like. 
     Simple server facility  142  appliances may also be utilized across the enterprise facility&#39;s  102  network infrastructure, such as switches, routers, wireless routers, hubs  148 , gateways, print servers  142 , net modems, and the like. These simple server facility appliances may not require configuration by the enterprise facility  102 , but may require protection from threats via an end-point computer security facility  152 . These appliances may provide interconnection services within the enterprise facility  102  network, and therefore may advance the spread of a threat if not properly protected. 
     One way for a client facility  144  to be protected from threats from within the enterprise facility  102  network may be a personal firewall. A personal firewall may be an application that controls network traffic to and from a client, permitting or denying communications based on a security policy. Personal firewalls may be designed for use by end-users, which may result in protection for only the computer on which it&#39;s installed. Personal firewalls may be able to control network traffic by providing prompts each time a connection is attempted and adapting security policy accordingly. Personal firewalls may also provide some level of intrusion detection, which may allow the software to terminate or block connectivity where it suspects an intrusion is being attempted. Other features that may be provided by a personal firewall may include alerts about outgoing connection attempts, control of program access to networks, hiding the client from port scans by not responding to unsolicited network traffic, monitoring of applications that may be listening for incoming connections, monitoring and regulation of incoming and outgoing network traffic, prevention of unwanted network traffic from installed applications, reporting applications that make connection attempts, reporting destination servers with which applications may be attempting communications, and the like. In embodiments, the personal firewall may be provided by the threat management facility  100 . 
     Another important component that may be protected by an end-point computer security facility  152  is a network firewall facility  138 , which may be a hardware or software device that may be configured to permit, deny, or proxy data through a computer network that has different levels of trust in its source of data. For instance, an internal enterprise facility  102  network may have a high level of trust, because the source of all data has been sourced from within the enterprise facility  102 . An example of a low level of trust is the Internet  154 , because the source of data may be unknown. A zone with an intermediate trust level, situated between the Internet  154  and a trusted internal network, may be referred to as a “perimeter network”. Since firewall facilities  138  represent boundaries between threat levels, the end-point computer security facility  152  associated with the firewall facility  138  may provide resources that may control the flow of threats at this enterprise facility  102  network entry point. Firewall facilities  138 , and associated end-point computer security facility  152 , may also be associated with a network node that may be equipped for interfacing between networks that use different protocols. In embodiments, the end-point computer security facility  152  may provide threat protection in a plurality of network infrastructure locations, such as at the enterprise facility  102  network entry point, i.e. the firewall facility  138  or gateway; at the server facility  142 ; at distribution points within the network, i.e. the routers and hubs  148 ; at the desktop of client facility  144  computers; and the like. In embodiments, the most effective location for threat detection may be at the user&#39;s computer desktop end-point computer security facility  152 . 
     The interface between the threat management facility  100  and the enterprise facility  102 , and through the appliance facility  140  to embedded end-point computer security facilities, may include a set of tools that may be the same for all enterprise implementations, but allow each enterprise to implement different controls. In embodiments, these controls may include both automatic actions and managed actions. Automatic actions may include downloads of the end-point computer security facility  152  to components of the enterprise facility  102 , downloads of updates to existing end-point computer security facilities of the enterprise facility  102 , uploaded network interaction requests from enterprise facility  102  components to the threat management facility  100 , and the like. In embodiments, automatic interactions between the enterprise facility  102  and the threat management facility  100  may be configured by the threat management facility  100  and an administration facility  134  in the enterprise facility  102 . The administration facility  134  may configure policy rules that determine interactions, such as developing rules for accessing applications, as in who is authorized and when applications may be used; establishing rules for ethical behavior and activities; rules governing the use of entertainment software such as games, or personal use software such as IM  162  and VoIP  164 ; rules for determining access to enterprise facility  102  computing resources, including authentication, levels of access, risk assessment, and usage history tracking; rules for when an action is not allowed, such as whether an action is completely deigned or just modified in its execution; and the like. The administration facility  134  may also establish license management, which in turn may further determine interactions associated with a licensed application. In embodiments, interactions between the threat management facility  100  and the enterprise facility  102  may provide threat protection to the enterprise facility  102  by managing the flow of network data into and out of the enterprise facility  102  through automatic actions that may be configured by the threat management facility  100  or the administration facility  134 . 
     Client facilities  144  within the enterprise facility  102  may be connected to the enterprise facility  102  network by way of wired network facilities  148  or wireless network facilities  150 . Client facilities  144  connected to the enterprise facility  102  network via a wired facility  148  or wireless facility  150  may receive similar protection, as both connection types are ultimately connected to the same enterprise facility  102  network, with the same end-point computer security facility  152 , and the same threat protected enterprise facility  102  environment. Mobile wireless facility  150  clients  144 , because of their ability to connect to any wireless  150  network access point, may connect to the internet  154  outside the enterprise facility  102 , and therefore outside the threat-protected environment of the enterprise facility  102 . In this instance the mobile client facility  144 , if not for the presence of the end-point computer security facility  152  may experience a malware attack or perform actions counter to enterprise facility  102  established policies. In addition, there may be a plurality of ways for the threat management facility  100  to protect the out-of-enterprise facility  102  mobile client facility  144  that has an embedded end-point computer security facility  152 , such as by providing URI filtering in personal routers, using a web appliance as a DNS proxy, or the like. Mobile client facilities  144  that are components of the enterprise facility  102  but temporarily outside connectivity with the enterprise facility  102  network, may be provided with the same threat protection and policy control as client facilities  144  inside the enterprise facility  102 . In addition, mobile client facilities  144  may receive the same interactions to and from the threat management facility  100  as client facilities  144  inside the enterprise facility  102 , where mobile client facilities  144  may be considered a virtual extension of the enterprise facility  102 , receiving all the same services via their embedded end-point computer security facility  152 . 
     Interactions between the threat management facility  100  and the components of the enterprise facility  102 , including mobile client facility  144 B-F extensions of the enterprise facility  102 , may ultimately be connected through the internet  154 . Threat management facility  100  downloads and upgrades to the enterprise facility  102  may be passed from the firewalled networks of the threat management facility  100  through to the end-point computer security facility  152  equipped components of the enterprise facility  102 . In turn the end-point computer security facility  152  components of the enterprise facility  102  may upload policy and access requests back across the internet  154  and through to the threat management facility  100 . The Internet  154  however, is also the path through which threats may be transmitted from their source. These network threats may include threats from a plurality of sources, including websites  158 , e-mail  160 , IM  162 , VoIP  164 , application software, and the like. These threats may attempt to attack a mobile enterprise client facility  144 B-F equipped with an end-point computer security facility  152 , but in embodiments, as long as the mobile client facility  144 B-F is embedded with an end-point computer security facility  152 , as described above, threats may have no better success than if the mobile client facility  144 B-F were inside the enterprise facility  102 . 
     However, if the mobile client facility  144  were to attempt to connect into an unprotected connection point, such as at a secondary location  108  that is not a part of the enterprise facility  102 , the mobile client facility  144  may be required to request network interactions through the threat management facility  100 , where contacting the threat management facility  100  may be performed prior to any other network action. In embodiments, the client facility&#39;s  144  end-point computer security facility  152  may manage actions in unprotected network environments such as when the client facility  144  is in a secondary location  108  or connecting wirelessly  150  to a non-enterprise facility  102  wireless internet  154  connection, where the end-point computer security facility  152  may dictate what actions are allowed, blocked, modified, or the like. For instance, if the client facility&#39;s  144  end-point computer security facility  152  is unable to establish a secured connection to the threat management facility  100 , the end-point computer security facility  152  may inform the user of such, and recommend that the connection not be made. In the instance when the user chooses to connect despite the recommendation, the end-point computer security facility  152  may perform specific actions during or after the unprotected connection is made, including running scans during the connection period, running scans after the connection is terminated, storing interactions for subsequent threat and policy evaluation, contacting the threat management facility  100  upon first instance of a secured connection for further actions and or scanning, restricting access to network and local resources, or the like. In embodiments, the end-point computer security facility  152  may perform specific actions to remediate possible threat incursions or policy violations during or after the unprotected connection. 
     The secondary location  108  may have no end-point computer security facilities  152  as a part of its computer components, such as its firewalls  138 , servers  142 , clients  144 , hubs  148 , wireless hubs  150 , and the like. As a result, the computer components of the secondary location  108  may be open to threat attacks, and become potential sources of threats, as well as any mobile enterprise facility clients  144 B-F that may be connected to the secondary location&#39;s  108  network. In this instance, these computer components may now unknowingly spread a threat to other components connected to the network. 
     Some threats may not come directly from the Internet  154 , such as from non-enterprise facility controlled mobile devices that are physically brought into the enterprise facility  102  and connected to the enterprise facility  102  client facilities  144 . The connection may be made from direct connection with the enterprise facility&#39;s  102  client facility  144 , such as through a USB port, or in physical proximity with the enterprise facility&#39;s  102  client facility  144  such that a wireless facility  150  connection can be established, such as through a Bluetooth connection. These physical proximity threats  110  may be another mobile computing device, a portable memory storage device, a mobile communications device, or the like, such as CDs and DVDs  170 , memory stick  174 , flash drive  174 , external hard drive, cell phone  178 , PDAs  180 , MP3 players, digital cameras, point-to-point devices, digital picture frames, digital pens, navigation devices, appliances, and the like. A physical proximity threat  110  may have been previously infiltrated by network threats while connected to an unprotected network connection outside the enterprise facility  102 , and when connected to the enterprise facility  102  client facility  144 , pose a threat. Because of their mobile nature, physical proximity threats  110  may infiltrate computing resources in any location, such as being physically brought into the enterprise facility  102  site, connected to an enterprise facility  102  client facility  144  while that client facility  144  is mobile, plugged into an unprotected client facility  144  at a secondary location  108 , and the like. A mobile device, once connected to an unprotected computer resource, may become a physical proximity threat  110 . In embodiments, the end-point computer security facility  152  may provide enterprise facility  102  computing resources with threat protection against physical proximity threats  110 , for instance, through scanning the device prior to allowing data transfers, through security validation certificates, through establishing a safe zone within the enterprise facility  102  computing resource to transfer data into for evaluation, and the like. 
     Now that the overall system has been described, we turn towards a set of virtual machine sharing embodiments. It should be understood that the following virtual machine sharing embodiments may be managed through a threat management facility  100  along with other services, such as those described herein. 
     A computer, such as the end-point client  144  or the server  142 , is a physical computing machine  202 , that is, it may act as a single processing entity, where there is a single operating system  210  on the machine, and which has all of the physical resources of the physical machine available for its use. However, a computer may also be partitioned or multiplexed into a plurality of virtual computing machines  204 , where each virtual computing machine  204  runs its own operating system  210 . One of the reasons for implementing a virtual computing machine  204  configuration is to establish multiple isolated virtual machines  204  on a single hardware platform, such as for quality of service offered to different enterprise customer servers operating on the same physical server  142 , the ability to run different types of operating systems on a single platform, providing a unique instruction set architecture to one virtual machine verses another, and the like. In order to maintain isolation amongst these virtual machines  204 , there is typically no sharing of information or software resources between the virtual computing machines  204 . However, since all virtual computing machines  204  on a given physical computing machine  202  platform must ultimately share the same hardware resources, such as processing and physical memory  212  resources, there may be limits to how many virtual computing machines  204  may be accommodated on a single physical platform, especially in terms of security software and associated processing duplication for each virtual computing machine  204 . For instance, a plurality of virtual computing machines  204  configured on a single physical computing machine  202  may each have their own copies of the end-point computer security facility  152 , all running on the same physical computing machine  202 , and competing for shared physical resources such as processing capability and physical memory. This may place real limitations on the capability of a single physical computing machine  202  in accommodating a large number of virtual computing machines  204 . The current invention may enable an increase to the number of virtual computing machines  204  that may be accommodated on a single physical computing machine  202 , as well as increasing the efficiency of the system&#39;s processes, through the use of a sharing facility  220 , which may allow for the sharing of information and resources between virtual machines. 
     In embodiments, providing a sharing facility  220  associated with the use of a plurality of virtual computing machines  204 , the present invention may enable greater efficiencies in the use of physical memory  212  and processing in order to increase the number of virtual computing machines  204  that may be accommodated with a single physical computing machine  202 , decrease the overlap of software applications and processes, allow for the sharing of information between virtual computing machines  204  to increase the efficiency of malware detection methods, decrease the overlap of malware scanning amongst virtual computing machines  204  in order to decrease processing load, share system and application configuration and state information to provide greater system uniformity, and the like. 
     In embodiments, the present invention may also better enable a virtual computing machine  208 , amongst a plurality of virtual machines, to be used to isolate potentially harmful files and code. For instance, a file may be scanned and determined to be potentially harmful. This file may then be isolated in a separate virtual computing machine  204  where additional scanning may be performed, or where behavior observation may be made. This virtual computing machine  204  may now act as a protective environment, where the other virtual computing machines  204  are protected through isolation of the file or process. In addition, the virtual computing machine  204  that initiated the isolation may now safely monitor shared information, such as state information, from outside the isolated virtual computing machine  204 . This ability to create virtual computing machines  204  that act as a protective environment, coupled with shared information, may provide an increased security for potentially harmful files and processes. 
     In embodiments, referring to  FIG. 2  the physical computing machine  202  is illustrated. The physical computing machine may be a client  144  or a server  142  or some other type of computing device. The physical computing machine  202  may be connected to a network either through a wired or a wireless connection. Further, those skilled in art would appreciate that the physical computing machine  202  may include hardware, software, software applications, processes, procedure, in embodiments, described herein. Further it should be noted that the physical computing system  202  is shown to have only virtual machine  204  A and virtual computing machine  204 B. However, those skilled in the art would appreciate that physical computing system  202  may have a plurality of virtual computing machines. The virtual computing machine  204 A and the virtual computing machine  204 B may be a software implementation of a machine on a computer that may execute process like a real computer. The virtual computing machine  204 A may include a host operating system  210 A, a virtual memory  212 A and a host configuration and state  214 A. In addition, the virtual computing machine  204 A may include a host computer security facility  152 A. 
     The host operating system  210 A may be a program loaded on to the computer during boot time and may control other programs, such as, applications, background processes, and the like. Further, those skilled in the art would appreciate that the host operating system  210 A may be construed in an alternate way as known in the art. The host operating system  210 A may be associated with the virtual memory  212  A. The virtual memory  212 A may hold instructions related to host operating system  210 A. The virtual memory  212 A may also hold information related to host configuration and state information  214 A. The host configuration and state information  214 A may store the information related to configuration such as operating system configuration information, firewall configuration, information application, configuration information, and the like. The host computer security facility  152 A may hold information related to security of the virtual computing machine  204 A such as detection of suspicious programs, malware detection, and the like. 
     The physical computing machine  202  may include another different virtual computing machine  204 B that may run a guest operating system  210 B. It may be noted that the virtual computing machine  204 B may include one or more guest operation systems as shown in  FIG. 2 . Further, those skilled in the art would appreciate that physical computing machine  202  may include the host and multiple guests and the host may be randomly chosen from a number of multiple virtual computing machines or may be constituted in an alternate way as known in the art. The virtual computing machine  204 B may include a guest operating system  210 B, a virtual memory  212 B, a guest configuration and state  214 B and a guest computer security facility  152 B, and the like. 
     The guest operating system  210 B may run a different operating system with respect to host operating system  210 A. In addition, the guest operating system  210 B may be store program instruction specific to it in the virtual memory  212 B. The virtual memory  212 B may store configuration and state information specific to the virtual computing machine  204 B. In addition, the virtual memory  212 B may be associated with the guest configuration and state facility  214 B. The guest configuration and state facility  214 B may be associated with the guest computer security facility  152 B. The guest computer security facility  152 B may store the information related to malware and access control. 
     The virtual computing machine  204 A and the virtual computing machine  204 B may share a common physical memory  212 . The common physical memory  212  may store process information of programs associated with the virtual computing machine  204 A and the virtual computing machine  204 B. The process information may be processing time of a processing resource, removal of processing requirement of the virtual computing machines  204 A and  204 B, and the like. In embodiments, the virtual computing machine  204 A and the virtual computing machine  204 B may be associated with the virtual computing machine monitor  208 . The virtual computing machine monitor  208  may provide a software layer which may implement virtualization for running multiple virtual computing machines. For example, the virtual computing machine monitor  208  may provide the software layer for the virtual computing machine  204 A and the virtual computing machine  204 B. 
     In embodiments, the virtual computing machine  204 A and the virtual computing machine  204 B may be associated with the sharing facility  220 . The sharing facility  220  may provide sharing information between the virtual computing machine  204 A and the virtual computing machine  204 B. The sharing facility  220  may be a software program. 
     Referring to  FIG. 3 , a process  300  may initiate a method to share information related to threat management. At logical block  302 , the physical computing machine  202  may be presented. For example, the physical computing machine  202  may include the virtual computing machine  204  A and  204 B. In addition, each of the virtual computing machines  204 A and  204 B may be associated with their respective operating system  210 A and  210 B. In embodiments, the virtual computer machine monitor  208  may be a hypervisor. In embodiments, the virtual computer machine monitor  208  may be a software program which may provide virtualization of virtual computing machine  204 A and virtual computing machine  204 B. In embodiments, the virtual computing machine monitor  208  may run directly on the physical computing machine  202 . The physical computing machine  202  may be a client or a server. In embodiments, the virtual computing machine monitor  208  may run in association with the operating system. 
     At logical block  304 , the virtual computing machine  204 A may be presented as the host and the virtual computing machine  204 B may be presented as the guest, amongst a plurality of virtual computing machines  204   
     Further, it should be noted that at logical block  304 , the virtual computing machine  204 A may be presented as the host and the virtual computing machine  204 B may be presented as the guest. However, those skilled in the art would appreciate that the virtual computing machine  204 A may be presented as the guest and the virtual computing machine  204 B may be presented as the host. In addition, one of the multiple virtual computing machines may be presented as a host and the remaining multiple virtual machines may presented as the guest. 
     At logical block  308 , the information related to threat management may be shared. For example, the information related to threat management may be shared between the host virtual computing machine  204 A and the guest virtual computing machine  204 B. In embodiments, the information related to threat management may be provided by the threat management facility  100 . In embodiments, the information may be shared through the sharing facility  220 . In embodiments, the sharing facility  220  may be a software program associated with an allocated memory. The allocated memory may not be a part of the physical memory. The physical memory may be allocated to the host virtual computing machine  204 A. In embodiments, the sharing facility  220  may communicate the shared information directly between the virtual computing machine  204 A and the virtual computing machine  204 B. 
     In embodiments, the software program may run on the host virtual computing machine  204 A. In embodiments, the software program may run on a separate physical computing machine. The separate physical machine may have all the functionality similar to the physical computing machine  202 . 
     In embodiments, the sharing of information between the virtual computing machine  204 A and the virtual computing machine  204 B may conserve a resource of any of virtual computing machine  204 A and the virtual computing machine  204 B. In embodiments, the resource may be conserved through a consolidated memory usage. The memory may be a physical memory, which may be allocated to the virtual memory  212 A or to the virtual memory  212 B. In embodiments, the resource may be conserved by a processing resource. The processing resource may be a processing time. In embodiments, the processing resource may be removed. The removed processing resource may be a part of any of the virtual computing machine  204 A or the virtual computing machine  204 B. In embodiment, the resource may be a reduction of the processing requirement. 
     In embodiments, the sharing information may be associated with a computer security facility  152 . The computer security facility  152 A and  152 B may run in minimized form or as a background process within the virtual computing machines  204 A and  204 B respectively. The computer security facility  152  may be provided in part from outside the virtual computing machine  204 A. In embodiments, computer security may not be eliminated from one or more virtual computing machines. The computer security facility  152  may be provided from outside the virtual computing machine  204 A or  204 B. A client firewall may be associated with the computer security facility  152 . The client firewall may run as background process in a minimized form. In embodiments, the client firewall may be provided from outside the virtual computing machine  204 A or  204 B. In embodiments, the client firewall may be eliminated completely from the virtual computing machine  204 A and  204 B. In addition, the client firewall may be provided from outside the virtual computing machine  204 A. 
     In embodiments, the computer security facility  152  may be associated with network access control. The network access control may be related to securing the virtual computing machine  204 A and the virtual computing machine  204 B prior to a network connection. In addition the network access control may run as a background process or in minimized form within the virtual computing machine  204 A and the virtual computing machine  204 B. When the network access control runs in minimized form in the virtual computing machine  204 A or the virtual computing machine  204 B, the network access control may be provided in part or in full from outside the physical computing machine  202 . In embodiments, the network access control may be completely eliminated from the virtual computing machine  204 A or the virtual computing machine  204 B. The network access control may then be provided from outside the virtual computing machine  204 A or the virtual computing machine  204 B. 
     In embodiments, the sharing information may be associated with malware security and control. The malware security and control may not be included in the virtual computing machine  204 A or the virtual computing machine  204 B. In embodiments, the malware security and control scanning time may be reduced by offsetting the scan related to the virtual computing machine  204 A or the virtual computing machine  204 B. In embodiments, security and control scan results may be shared between the virtual computing machine  204 A and the virtual computing machine  204 B. 
     In embodiments, the virtual computing machine  204 A may not replicate scanning, if it has been executed on the virtual computing machine  204 B. For example, if the host computer security facility  152 A has performed scanning of files, then the scanning information may be shared with guest computer security facility  152 B. In this case, the guest computer security facility  152 B may not rescan files and may utilize the shared information received from the host computer security facility  152 A. 
     In embodiments, the shared information may be associated with the configuration information. In embodiments, the configuration information may be associated with firewall configuration information. The firewall configuration information may be associated with an application rule, a firewall rule, a quarantine rule, a network bridge, a network access or some other type of firewall configuration information. 
     In embodiments, the shared information may be associated with an operating system configuration information. In embodiments, the operating system configuration information may be associated with process management, memory management, a disk or file systems, networking security, a graphical user interface, a device drivers or some other type of operating system configuration information. 
     In embodiments, the shared information may be associated with application configuration information. In embodiments, the application configuration information may be associated with enterprise software, enterprise infrastructure software, information software, content access software, simulation software, educational software, development software, engineering software, or some other type of application software. 
     In embodiments, the shared information may be associated with shared settings. In embodiments, the shared setting may enable identical firewall setting for the virtual computing machines  204 A and the virtual computing machines  204 B. In embodiment, shared setting may enable identical configuration setting for the virtual computing machines  204 A and  20 B. The identical configuration setting may be set upon the creation of the virtual computing machine  204 A and the virtual computing machine  204 B. In embodiments, the identical configuration setting may be set based on changes that may be set when based on the configuration changes to the host virtual computing machine  204 A. In addition, the configuration changes may be associated with a policy management facility  112 . 
     In embodiments, the shared setting may be associated with a computer security facility  152 , a client firewall, a network access control, or some other type of shared settings. In addition, the network access control may secure the virtual computing machine  204 A and the virtual computing machine  204 B prior to making a network connection. In embodiments, the sharing information may be associated with the host configuration and state information  214 A and guest configuration and host information  214 B. In embodiments, the host configuration and state information  214 A and guest configuration and state information  214 B may be associated with scanned files. In embodiments, the scanned files may be scanned from outside the virtual computing machine  204 A or the he virtual computing machine  204 B. In embodiments, the scanned files may be scanned from inside the virtual computing machine  204 A or the he virtual computing machine  204 B. 
     In embodiments, the host configuration and state information  214 A and guest configuration and state information  214 B may be associated with security and control information. The security and control information may be associated with a file system which may be common between the virtual computing machine  204 A and the virtual computing machine  204 B. 
     In embodiments, the host configuration and state information  214 A and guest configuration and state information  214 B may be associated with an operating system. In embodiments, the operating system state information may be derived by comparing host operating system  210 A state and the guest operating system  210 B state. 
     In embodiments, the host configuration and state information  214 A and guest configuration and state information  214 B may be associated with an application software, with a software testing, and the like. 
     In embodiments, the sharing of information may be associated with malware detection information. The malware information may detected by examination of files, identification of suspicious behavior from a computer program, identification of one or more virus, worm, phishing attacks, rootkits, Trojan horses, spyware, malware and the like. In embodiments, the examination of files may be associated malware dictionary. The malware dictionary may compare values from files against entries in the malware dictionary to detect malware information. In embodiments, the malware detection associated with examination of files may be related with repairing of files, quarantining of files, deleting of files, scanning of files and the like In embodiments, the malware detection information may be based on identification of suspicious behavior of a computer program. The identification of suspicious behavior may include monitoring the computer program. 
     Referring to  FIG. 4 , in embodiments, the process  400  may start with a logical block  402 , where the physical computing machine may include a virtual computer machine monitor and a plurality of computer machines. Each of the plurality of virtual computer machines may run its own operating system. The process  400  may run the virtual computing machine  204 A and the virtual computing machine  204 B on a physical computing machine  202 . The virtual computing machine  204 A and the virtual computing machine  204 B may run the host operating system  210 A and the guest operating system  210 B respectively. At logical block  404 , one of the plurality of virtual computing machines  204 A may be presented as the host and the virtual computing machines  204 B may be presented as the guest. Further, those skilled in the art may appreciate that any one of the virtual computing machines may be presented as host and the remaining machines may be presented as guests. In embodiments, the virtual computing machine  204 A or the virtual computing machine  204 B may act as a sandbox. In embodiments, the sandbox may provide an execution environment for running a program code. In embodiments, the sandbox may run an executable code in form of simulation on the virtual computing machine  204 B. In embodiments, when a simulation may be terminated on the virtual computing machine  204 B errors may be identified or changes may be searched and analyzed for indication of malware. Further, those skilled in the art would appreciate, that the virtual computing machine  204 A may act as the host and the virtual computing machine  204 B may act as the guest may be represented in an alternate way where the virtual computing machine  204 A may act as the guest and virtual computing machine  204 B may act as the host or other configuration known in the art. 
     At logical block  408 , the process  400  may provide for one of the plurality of virtual computing machine  204 B as a protected environment. The protected environment may be used to isolate suspicious files that may have malware associated with them. For example, the protected environment provided by the virtual computing machine  204 B may be used to isolate suspicious files from the virtual computing machine  204 A and other guest virtual computing machines. In embodiments, the protected environment provided by the virtual computing machine  204 B may be used by the testing facility  118  for testing purposes. 
     In embodiments, the protected environment may be associated with malware detection. In addition, the isolated files may be observed for a period of time. In embodiments, the protected environment may be launched to scan a file. In embodiments, the malware detection may be associated with the examination of files. The examination of files may be related to repairing the file, deleting the file, quarantining the file, examination of files against malware dictionary of know malwares, or some other type of examination on files. In addition, the malware dictionary may be associated with a comparison between values from file and the entities in the malware dictionary. 
     In embodiment, the malware detection may be related to identification of suspicious behavior of the computer program or malware detection information that may be related to detection of one or more virus, worm, phishing attacks, rootkits, Trojan horses, spyware, malware and the like. The identification of suspicion behavior may include monitoring if the suspicious nature of the computer program. 
     At block  410 , the process  400  may communicate the suspicious information from the virtual computing machine  204 A to the virtual computing machine  204 B providing the protected environment for isolation. Further, those skilled in the art would appreciate that any of the virtual computing machine  204 A or the virtual computing machine  204 B may act as the guest and may provide a protected environment. Furthermore, those skilled in the art would appreciate that the embodiments described herein may be constituted in an alternate way. 
     In embodiments, the information may be shared between virtual computing machine  204 A and the virtual computing machine  204 B providing a protected environment. Further, those skilled in the art would appreciate the information may be constituted in an alternate way as known in the art. In embodiments, the virtual computing machine  204 B may be on a different physical computing machine other than  202 . The information shared between the virtual computing machine  204 B providing the protected environment and the virtual computing machine  204 A may be related to state information. In embodiments, the state information shared between the virtual computing machine  204 B providing the protected environment and the physical computing machine  204 A may be associated with scanned files. The scanned files may be scanned form inside or outside the virtual computing machine  204 A or the virtual computing machines  204 B. Continuing to refer to  FIG. 2 , a method of sharing information between virtual machines may include sharing information related to malware detection. In some embodiments, data regarding a malware scan may be received from a networked source. The malware scan may be done by a security facility  152  of a first virtual machine  204 A, of a host  210 A, of a physical computing machine  202 , or an external operating system. The data may be processed through the use of a first virtual machine  204 A. The first virtual machine  204 A may share the information about the processing of the data with a second virtual machine  204 B. In some embodiments, in response to receiving the shared information, the second virtual machine  204 B may process the data itself, while in other embodiments, the second virtual machine  204 B will not process the data. The second virtual machine  204 B may then alter an activity as a result of the shared information. For example, and without limitation, the first virtual machine  204 A may include a security facility  152 A for scanning code for malware, and it may share information pertaining to its scans with another virtual machine to improve the effectiveness of scanning at the second virtual machine or to eliminate the need for redundant scanning at the second virtual machine. Continuing with the example, the first virtual machine  204 A may detect that a file is infected with malware and may gather information related to this detection, such as, the name of the file, the source of the malware, source of the file, what kind of malware, the functions of the malware, and the like. The first virtual machine  204 A may, in some embodiments, take an action with respect to the malware, such as taking a remedial action (as discussed herein elsewhere), placing the malware source on a suspect or blacklist, generating a protected environment, and updating a security policy. This information may be important for the security of other virtual machines. This information may be shared with other virtual machines, such as virtual machine  204 B. In response to receiving the shared information, the second virtual machine  204 B may take an action, such as updating its own security policy. 
     In some embodiments, instead of the first virtual machine  204 A sharing information about the processing of the data with a second virtual machine  204 B, the information is shared with a host  210 A. The host  210 A may then share the information with a second virtual machine  204 B to alter an activity of the second virtual machine  204 B, as previously described herein. In other embodiments, in response to receiving the shared information, the host  210 A may instruct a second virtual machine  204 B to at least one of alter an activity of the second virtual machine  204 , to not process the data, to process the data, and share the information with a second virtual machine. In some embodiments, in response to receiving the shared information, the host  210 A may simply share the information with a second virtual machine  204 B. 
     In some embodiments, malware scanning may be done outside of the virtual machine  204 , such as by a security facility  152  of an operating system  222  external to the virtual machine  204 . The operating system may be that of the host  210 A or some other external operating system  222 . In embodiments, the computer security facility  152  may be provided from outside the virtual computing machine  204 A or  204 B, such as by a physical computing machine  202 . In an embodiment, scanning data relating to malware detection may be received from a networked source. Receiving the scanning data may cause a first virtual machine  204 A to take an action based on the scanned data, such as blacklisting a source of the malware, taking a remedial action, updating a security policy, and the like. The first virtual machine  204 A may then share information about the action with a host  210 A to manage a second virtual machine&#39;s  204 B processes. Alternatively, the first virtual machine  204 A may share information about the action with a second virtual machine  204 B to alter a process of the second virtual machine  204 B. 
     Continuing with  FIG. 2 , the first and second virtual machines  204  may reside on the same physical machine or on separate physical machines. The shared information may be shared over a network. The shared information may relate to malware that was discovered as a result of the data processing. The shared information may be associated with configuration information. The configuration information may be associated with firewall configuration information. The firewall configuration information may be associated with at least one of an application rule, a firewall rule, a quarantine rule, a network bridge, and network access. The configuration information may be associated with operating system configuration information. The configuration information may be associated with application configuration information. The information is associated with state information. The state information may be associated with scanned files. The scanned files may be scanned from inside the virtual computing machine. The scanned files may be scanned from outside the virtual computing machine. The state information may be security and control information associated with a file system common between virtual computing machines. The information may be associated with at least one of malware detection, an application state, and an operating system state. 
     The methods and systems described herein may be deployed in part or in whole through a machine that executes computer software, program codes, and/or instructions on a processor. The present invention may be implemented as a method on the machine, as a system or apparatus as part of or in relation to the machine, or as a computer program product embodied in a computer readable medium executing on one or more of the machines. The processor may be part of a server, client, network infrastructure, mobile computing platform, stationary computing platform, or other computing platform. A processor may be any kind of computational or processing device capable of executing program instructions, codes, binary instructions and the like. The processor may be or include a signal processor, digital processor, embedded processor, microprocessor or any variant such as a co-processor (math co-processor, graphic co-processor, communication co-processor and the like) and the like that may directly or indirectly facilitate execution of program code or program instructions stored thereon. In addition, the processor may enable execution of multiple programs, threads, and codes. The threads may be executed simultaneously to enhance the performance of the processor and to facilitate simultaneous operations of the application. By way of implementation, methods, program codes, program instructions and the like described herein may be implemented in one or more thread. The thread may spawn other threads that may have assigned priorities associated with them; the processor may execute these threads based on priority or any other order based on instructions provided in the program code. The processor may include memory that stores methods, codes, instructions and programs as described herein and elsewhere. The processor may access a storage medium through an interface that may store methods, codes, and instructions as described herein and elsewhere. The storage medium associated with the processor for storing methods, programs, codes, program instructions or other type of instructions capable of being executed by the computing or processing device may include but may not be limited to one or more of a CD-ROM, DVD, memory, hard disk, flash drive, RAM, ROM, cache and the like. 
     A processor may include one or more cores that may enhance speed and performance of a multiprocessor. In embodiments, the process may be a dual core processor, quad core processors, other chip-level multiprocessor and the like that combine two or more independent cores (called a die). 
     The methods and systems described herein may be deployed in part or in whole through a machine that executes computer software on a server, client, firewall, gateway, hub, router, or other such computer and/or networking hardware. The software program may be associated with a server that may include a file server, print server, domain server, internet server, intranet server and other variants such as secondary server, host server, distributed server and the like. The server may include one or more of memories, processors, computer readable media, storage media, ports (physical and virtual), communication devices, and interfaces capable of accessing other servers, clients, machines, and devices through a wired or a wireless medium, and the like. The methods, programs or codes as described herein and elsewhere may be executed by the server. In addition, other devices required for execution of methods as described in this application may be considered as a part of the infrastructure associated with the server. 
     The server may provide an interface to other devices including, without limitation, clients, other servers, printers, database servers, print servers, file servers, communication servers, distributed servers and the like. Additionally, this coupling and/or connection may facilitate remote execution of program across the network. The networking of some or all of these devices may facilitate parallel processing of a program or method at one or more location without deviating from the scope of the invention. In addition, any of the devices attached to the server through an interface may include at least one storage medium capable of storing methods, programs, code and/or instructions. A central repository may provide program instructions to be executed on different devices. In this implementation, the remote repository may act as a storage medium for program code, instructions, and programs. 
     The software program may be associated with a client that may include a file client, print client, domain client, internet client, intranet client and other variants such as secondary client, host client, distributed client and the like. The client may include one or more of memories, processors, computer readable media, storage media, ports (physical and virtual), communication devices, and interfaces capable of accessing other clients, servers, machines, and devices through a wired or a wireless medium, and the like. The methods, programs or codes as described herein and elsewhere may be executed by the client. In addition, other devices required for execution of methods as described in this application may be considered as a part of the infrastructure associated with the client. 
     The client may provide an interface to other devices including, without limitation, servers, other clients, printers, database servers, print servers, file servers, communication servers, distributed servers and the like. Additionally, this coupling and/or connection may facilitate remote execution of program across the network. The networking of some or all of these devices may facilitate parallel processing of a program or method at one or more location without deviating from the scope of the invention. In addition, any of the devices attached to the client through an interface may include at least one storage medium capable of storing methods, programs, applications, code and/or instructions. A central repository may provide program instructions to be executed on different devices. In this implementation, the remote repository may act as a storage medium for program code, instructions, and programs. 
     The methods and systems described herein may be deployed in part or in whole through network infrastructures. The network infrastructure may include elements such as computing devices, servers, routers, hubs, firewalls, clients, personal computers, communication devices, routing devices and other active and passive devices, modules and/or components as known in the art. The computing and/or non-computing device(s) associated with the network infrastructure may include, apart from other components, a storage medium such as flash memory, buffer, stack, RAM, ROM and the like. The processes, methods, program codes, instructions described herein and elsewhere may be executed by one or more of the network infrastructural elements. 
     The methods, program codes, and instructions described herein and elsewhere may be implemented on a cellular network having multiple cells. The cellular network may either be frequency division multiple access (FDMA) network or code division multiple access (CDMA) network. The cellular network may include mobile devices, cell sites, base stations, repeaters, antennas, towers, and the like. The cell network may be a GSM, GPRS, 3G, EVDO, mesh, or other networks types. 
     The methods, programs codes, and instructions described herein and elsewhere may be implemented on or through mobile devices. The mobile devices may include navigation devices, cell phones, mobile phones, mobile personal digital assistants, laptops, palmtops, netbooks, pagers, electronic books readers, music players and the like. These devices may include, apart from other components, a storage medium such as a flash memory, buffer, RAM, ROM and one or more computing devices. The computing devices associated with mobile devices may be enabled to execute program codes, methods, and instructions stored thereon. Alternatively, the mobile devices may be configured to execute instructions in collaboration with other devices. The mobile devices may communicate with base stations interfaced with servers and configured to execute program codes. The mobile devices may communicate on a peer to peer network, mesh network, or other communications network. The program code may be stored on the storage medium associated with the server and executed by a computing device embedded within the server. The base station may include a computing device and a storage medium. The storage device may store program codes and instructions executed by the computing devices associated with the base station. 
     The computer software, program codes, and/or instructions may be stored and/or accessed on machine readable media that may include: computer components, devices, and recording media that retain digital data used for computing for some interval of time; semiconductor storage known as random access memory (RAM); mass storage typically for more permanent storage, such as optical discs, forms of magnetic storage like hard disks, tapes, drums, cards and other types; processor registers, cache memory, volatile memory, non-volatile memory; optical storage such as CD, DVD; removable media such as flash memory (e.g. USB sticks or keys), floppy disks, magnetic tape, paper tape, punch cards, standalone RAM disks, Zip drives, removable mass storage, off-line, and the like; other computer memory such as dynamic memory, static memory, read/write storage, mutable storage, read only, random access, sequential access, location addressable, file addressable, content addressable, network attached storage, storage area network, bar codes, magnetic ink, and the like. 
     The methods and systems described herein may transform physical and/or or intangible items from one state to another. The methods and systems described herein may also transform data representing physical and/or intangible items from one state to another. 
     The elements described and depicted herein, including in flow charts and block diagrams throughout the figures, imply logical boundaries between the elements. However, according to software or hardware engineering practices, the depicted elements and the functions thereof may be implemented on machines through computer executable media having a processor capable of executing program instructions stored thereon as a monolithic software structure, as standalone software modules, or as modules that employ external routines, code, services, and so forth, or any combination of these, and all such implementations may be within the scope of the present disclosure. Examples of such machines may include, but may not be limited to, personal digital assistants, laptops, personal computers, mobile phones, other handheld computing devices, medical equipment, wired or wireless communication devices, transducers, chips, calculators, satellites, tablet PCs, electronic books, gadgets, electronic devices, devices having artificial intelligence, computing devices, networking equipments, servers, routers and the like. Furthermore, the elements depicted in the flow chart and block diagrams or any other logical component may be implemented on a machine capable of executing program instructions. Thus, while the foregoing drawings and descriptions set forth functional aspects of the disclosed systems, no particular arrangement of software for implementing these functional aspects should be inferred from these descriptions unless explicitly stated or otherwise clear from the context. Similarly, it will be appreciated that the various steps identified and described above may be varied, and that the order of steps may be adapted to particular applications of the techniques disclosed herein. All such variations and modifications are intended to fall within the scope of this disclosure. As such, the depiction and/or description of an order for various steps should not be understood to require a particular order of execution for those steps, unless required by a particular application, or explicitly stated or otherwise clear from the context. 
     The methods and/or processes described above, and steps thereof, may be realized in hardware, software or any combination of hardware and software suitable for a particular application. The hardware may include a general purpose computer and/or dedicated computing device or specific computing device or particular aspect or component of a specific computing device. The processes may be realized in one or more microprocessors, microcontrollers, embedded microcontrollers, programmable digital signal processors or other programmable device, along with internal and/or external memory. The processes may also, or instead, be embodied in an application specific integrated circuit, a programmable gate array, programmable array logic, or any other device or combination of devices that may be configured to process electronic signals. It will further be appreciated that one or more of the processes may be realized as a computer executable code capable of being executed on a machine readable medium. 
     The computer executable code may be created using a structured programming language such as C, an object oriented programming language such as C++, or any other high-level or low-level programming language (including assembly languages, hardware description languages, and database programming languages and technologies) that may be stored, compiled or interpreted to run on one of the above devices, as well as heterogeneous combinations of processors, processor architectures, or combinations of different hardware and software, or any other machine capable of executing program instructions. 
     Thus, in one aspect, each method described above and combinations thereof may be embodied in computer executable code that, when executing on one or more computing devices, performs the steps thereof. In another aspect, the methods may be embodied in systems that perform the steps thereof, and may be distributed across devices in a number of ways, or all of the functionality may be integrated into a dedicated, standalone device or other hardware. In another aspect, the means for performing the steps associated with the processes described above may include any of the hardware and/or software described above. All such permutations and combinations are intended to fall within the scope of the present disclosure. 
     While the invention has been disclosed in connection with the preferred embodiments shown and described in detail, various modifications and improvements thereon will become readily apparent to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, the spirit and scope of the present invention is not to be limited by the foregoing examples, but is to be understood in the broadest sense allowable by law. 
     All documents referenced herein are hereby incorporated by reference.