Patent ID: 8484726

Claim:
A network security system, comprising: a plurality of processing nodes external to network edges of a plurality of external systems for security customers, wherein each security customer is associated with one of a plurality of industry verticals, wherein each security customer is connected to an associated processing node over the Internet via a tunnel, a transparent proxy, a forward proxy, or redirection to the associated processing node such that all traffic to and from the security customer traverses the processing node, each security customer being associated with one or more external systems, each security customer is communicatively coupled to one of the plurality of processing nodes, and each processing node comprising: a processing node data store storing security policy data defining security policies for each security customer; a processing node manager comprising a processor configured to: monitor and perform a threat classification on all data traffic originating from or destined to each external system, wherein the threat classification relates to viruses, malware, data leakage to the external system, and web site filtering; enforce corresponding security policies on the monitored data traffic; and for each security customer, generate security reporting data including data related to the enforcement of the security policies and data traffic statistics based on the monitored data traffic; and a logging node external to the network edges of the plurality of external systems and configured to communicate with the processing nodes, wherein the logging node includes a logging data store and a logging node manager comprising a processor configured to: receive the security reporting data from each processing node; aggregate the received security reporting data for each security customer; and store the aggregated security reporting data in the logging data store; wherein the logging node manager is configured to compare the aggregated security reporting data based on industry vertical.