Patent ID: 8370940

Claim:
A method in a proxy server for providing Internet-based proxy services, the method comprising: receiving, from a plurality of client devices, a plurality of requests for actions to be performed on identified network resources belonging to a plurality of origin servers, wherein at least some of the plurality of origin servers belong to different domains and are owned by different entities, wherein the proxy server and the plurality of origin servers are owned by different entities, and wherein the plurality of requests are received at the proxy server as a result of Domain Name System (DNS) requests for the different domains resolving to the proxy server; for each of the plurality of requests, analyzing that request to determine one or more of whether that request itself poses a threat and whether a visitor belonging to the request poses a threat, wherein analyzing each request to determine whether that request is from a visitor that poses a threat includes performing the following for that request: determining whether an IP address of that request is on one or more of: a global restricted IP address list that identifies IP addresses that are not allowed to access content of any of the plurality of origin servers, and a local IP restricted address list that identifies IP addresses that are not allowed to access content of the requested origin server, and responsive to determining that the IP address of the request is on one or more of the global restricted IP address list and the local IP restricted IP address list, determining whether that request includes a cookie that is on one or more of: a global allow cookie list that identifies cookies that are allowed to access content of all of the plurality of origin servers, and a local allow cookie list that identifies cookies that are allowed to access content of the requested origin server; blocking each request that itself poses a threat and blocking each request that is received from a visitor that poses a threat; and transmitting at least some of the plurality of requests that are not either a threat themselves or from a visitor that is a threat to the appropriate origin servers.