Patent ID: 8479297

Claim:
A system, comprising: a data processing apparatus; and a computer storage medium coupled to the data processing apparatus and including instructions that when executed by the data processing apparatus causes the data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising: receiving asset identifiers and asset categorizations associated with the asset identifiers, each asset being a network computer processing apparatus, each asset identifier uniquely identifying a corresponding asset, and the asset categorizations associated with each corresponding asset categorizing the asset as belonging to one or more asset types; receiving dimensional priority factors data for a plurality of dimensional priority factors, each dimensional priority factor including: a dimensional dictionary defining a plurality of classification metrics specific to the dimensional priority factor, each classification metric defining a metric to classify an asset as belonging to a classification; a plurality of dimensional rules for the dimensional priority factor, each dimensional rule defining one or more of the classification metrics and asset specific data for an asset as input and defining an asset factor for the asset based on the input; receiving composite priority factor data, the composite priority factor data including: a plurality of composite rules, each composite rule defining one or more asset factors determined from one or more corresponding dimensional rules as input and defining a composite factor based on the input; and a composite priority factor rule that defines composite factors as input and a composite priority factor based on the input; for each of the assets: for each of the dimensional priority factors, determining corresponding asset factors for the asset based on the dimensional rules; for each of the composite rules, determining composite factors for the asset based on the asset factors for the asset, wherein each composite factor has a Boolean value and an associated weight; and determining a composite priority factor for the asset based on the composite factors for the asset, wherein determining a composite priority factor includes summing the associated weights of each composite factor having a true Boolean value; and ranking the assets according to their corresponding composite priority factors to define an order by which the assets are to be subjected to one or more security processes.