Patent ID: 8661250

Claim:
A method for remotely activating a service channel comprising: receiving, at a stealth listener at a protected host, a trigger sent to the protected host by a remote client via a network, the trigger comprising a prescribed sequence of attempts to connect to the protected host at one or more trigger ports of the protected host, wherein at least one of the attempts to connect to the protected host comprises a full identification of a service port of the protected host, wherein the service port is different from the one or more trigger ports, and wherein the stealth listener receives network traffic at the one or more trigger ports and monitors the network traffic received at the one or more trigger ports for triggers; monitoring network traffic received at a predetermined one of the one or more trigger ports by an active listener, wherein the active listener is different from the stealth listener; authenticating the trigger based at least in part upon the trigger; opening the service channel based at least in part by allowing the remote client to establish a connection with the protected host via the service port based on the authentication; and generating a response in accordance with a detection of an event in the network traffic received at the predetermined one of the one or more trigger ports by the active listener.