Patent ID: 8516546

Claim:
A computer program product embodied on a non-transitory computer readable medium for facilitating communication, comprising: at least one database containing policy data for a plurality of entities stored therein, including: first policy data of a first one of the entities, the first one of the entities including a network device and the first policy data used for determining compliance of the network device, and second policy data of a second one of the entities, the second one of the entities including a group defined by a role including one of the network device and a user of the network device; wherein the second policy data requires that the user of the network device enters a password and the second policy data is used for authorization of the one of the network device and the user of the network device; computer code for receiving a message from the network device to access a component of a network; computer code for, in response to the receipt of the message, identifying the first policy data of the network device and the second policy data of the group; computer code for, in response to the receipt of the message, merging the first policy data of the network device and the second policy data of the group defined by the role of the one of the network device and the user of the network device to produce a combined policy; computer code for evaluating the combined policy with respect to the received message; computer code for determining whether the message is associated with a policy violation, based on the evaluation of the combined policy; computer code for rejecting the message when the determination is that the message is associated with the policy violation; and computer code for transmitting the message when the determination is that the message is not associated with the policy violation.