Patent ID: 8327430

Claim:
A method for controlling a firewall for a user computer system, said method comprising: one or more processors of the user computer system receiving a control request to control a program of the user computer system by the firewall, said control request comprising a condition pertaining to at least one process of a remote computer system, said at least one process configured to be executed on the remote computer system, said firewall configured to protect the user computer system from external threats, said condition pertaining to the at least one process comprising a condition of the at least one process utilizing less than a specified percentage of CPU resources of the remote computer system; said one or more processors storing a remote system condition associated with the program of the user computer system, said remote system condition comprising the condition pertaining to the at least one process; said one or more processors receiving a data request for a transmission of data from or to the program of the user computer system to or from the remote computer system, respectively; in response to said receiving the data request, said one or more processors requesting, from the remote computer system, information indicating a current state of the at least one process of the remote computer system; said one or more processors ascertaining whether the remote system condition is satisfied based on a comparison of the information indicating the current state of the at least one process with the condition pertaining to the at least one process; and said one or more processors directing the firewall to allow or block the transmission of data if said ascertaining ascertains that the remote system condition is satisfied or not satisfied, respectively.