Patent ID: 7359962

Claim:
A protection system for a first network of machines/hosts, comprising: a network discovery functionality which scans the first network to identify components present in the first network and their properties; a management agent which receives a detection signature for a type of attack pertinent to a certain component and/or certain property, the management agent operating to query the network discovery functionality to determine whether the certain component and/or the certain property are among the identified components and/or properties present in the first network and, if so, instantiate the detection signature for that type of attack and otherwise not instantiate the detection signature in order to minimize false detection; a traffic inspection agent that analyzes network traffic passing from a second network of machines/hosts into the first network of machines/hosts in view of instantiated detection signatures to identify passing content that is potentially harmful to the first network and issue alerts; a network entrance sentry coupled to receive the network traffic from the traffic inspection agent and which operates to prevent unauthorized access to the first network; an interlocking functionality supporting delivery of the traffic inspection agent issued alerts to the network entrance sentry; and the network entrance sentry further operating responsive to the traffic inspection agent issued alert to block the identified passing content that is potentially harmful to the first network from entering the first network.