Patent ID: 7787863

Claim:
A wireless agent for configuring and securing wireless access to a network, wherein the wireless agent comprises at least one processing device configured to: provide a request from a mobile device to wirelessly communicate with a network, wherein the request includes one or more characteristics dynamically describing the mobile device, and wherein the characteristics describing the mobile device include at least one physical characteristic and at least one logical characteristic describing a location of the mobile device; implement a security profile on the mobile device based on the characteristics describing the mobile device, wherein the security profile includes one or more security parameters defining an access zone for the network; implement at least one connection profile on the mobile device based on the characteristics describing the mobile device, wherein the connection profile configures one or more of the characteristics describing the mobile device to enforce the security parameters defining the access zone; authorize the mobile device to wirelessly communicate with the network from within the access zone, wherein the security parameters include one or more in-house security parameters in effect in response to the location of the mobile device being within the network and one or more on-the-road security parameters in effect in response to the location of the mobile device being remote from the network, wherein the connection profile enforces the security parameters defining the access zone by instructing the mobile device to: automatically collect security information on the mobile device; and encrypt the collected security information for storage on the mobile device.