Patent ID: 8407335

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving a plurality of log messages from a plurality of computing devices on a computer network; filtering the plurality of log messages based on one or more sets of message content rules so as to aggregate one or more of the plurality of log messages based on priority, wherein each of the plurality of log messages is discarded or retained in one of a plurality of priority queues, wherein the plurality of priority queues comprise at least three queues; generating at least one aggregate prior to sending the at least one aggregate over a network connection, wherein each of the at least one aggregate contains a set of retained log messages from one or more of the plurality of priority queues, wherein the generating step further comprises: selecting, in order of priority, one or more of log messages stored in a first of the plurality of priority queues until a packet size limit is reached, the first priority queue is exhausted, or a next log message is outside of a packet time interval; compressing the at least one aggregate; encrypting the at least one aggregate; digitally signing the at least one aggregate; and sending the at least one aggregate over the network connection to a data center.