Patent ID: 8555394

Claim:
A network security server comprising: a device detection functionality, said device detection functionality arranged to detect devices on a network on an ongoing basis; a state extraction functionality arranged to read the state of each of the detected devices; a store functionality arranged to store a representation of the read state for each of the detected devices; a compare functionality arranged to compare a representation of the present state of each of the detected devices to the respective stored state representation of each of the detected devices and identify any state changes for each of the detected devices responsive to the comparison of the present state with the stored state; a state risk analysis functionality in communication with said compare functionality, said state risk analysis functionality arranged to compare the representation of the read state for each of the detected devices with a predetermined database of states and to output security risk information associated with a device identifier for each of the detected devices, said security risk information responsive to said comparison with the predetermined database of states and further responsive to said identified state changes of said compare functionality; and a session control functionality in communication with said state risk analysis functionality and arranged to control communication of each of the detected devices responsive to the device identifier and said security risk information.