Patent ID: 8756650

Claim:
A system comprising: at least one processor and at least one memory comprising: a policy module configured to: receive data indicating risk factors associated with the system; update risk levels and/or authentication levels for the system, independent of received requests, by applying the data to risk factor rules; and provide the updated risk levels and/or authentication levels associated with the updated risk levels to an authentication module in response to receiving requests from the authentication module; and the authentication module configured to: receive a first logon request, the first logon request not including an identification of a user; in response to receiving the first logon request, request a first updated risk level and/or authentication level for the system from the policy module; require a first authentication technique to grant the first logon request without the identification of the user based on the first updated risk level and/or authentication level received from the policy module; if the first authentication technique matches credentials stored by the authentication module, grant the logon request; if the first authentication technique does not match the credentials stored by the authentication module, deny the logon request; receive a second logon request, the second logon request not including an identification of the user; in response to receiving the second logon request, request a second updated risk and/or authentication level for the system from the policy module; and require at least a second authentication technique to grant the second logon request based on the second updated risk and/or authentication level, the first authentication technique and the second authentication technique each being independently sufficient for authentication for a determined risk level.