Patent ID: 8302152

Claim:
A method, comprising: receiving, via an input of a portable electronic device, a request to access the electronic device; automatically determining, by a processor without a requirement for user entry of location information, a familiar area for the electronic device; implementing, on the electronic device, a first security rule requiring a first authentication process when the electronic device is physically located in the familiar area and a second security rule requiring a second authentication process when the electronic device is located outside of the familiar area; receiving, via an input of the portable electronic device, a plurality of successful user authentication entries; determining a location of the device corresponding to each of the successful user authentication entries; saving, in a computer-readable memory, data representative of each of the entries and each entry's corresponding location, wherein: determining the familiar area comprises determining the familiar area based on the data representative of each of the entries and each entry's corresponding location; determining the location of the device comprises one or more of: receiving global positioning system data and determining the location based on the global positioning system data, and receiving a network address corresponding to a wireless communications network that the device has detected, and determining the location based on the network address; and determining the familiar area comprises: determining a set of successful user authentication entries that were received during a time period, grouping the entries from the set into a plurality of location-dependent subgroups, determining a size of the set and a size of each subgroup, identifying each subgroup having a size that at least equals a size threshold, wherein the size threshold corresponds to a portion of the set size, and for each subgroup having a size that at least equals the size threshold, classifying the location for that subgroup's entries as the familiar area.