Patent ID: 8266699

Claim:
A system for responding to security vulnerabilities in a system of computing devices, comprising: a database associating a plurality of device vulnerabilities to which computing devices can be subject, each vulnerability having a vulnerability identifier, with a plurality of remediation techniques that collectively remediate the plurality of device vulnerabilities; such that: each of the device vulnerabilities is associated with at least one remediation technique; each remediation technique associated with a particular device vulnerability remediates that particular vulnerability; each remediation technique has a remediation type selected from the type group consisting of patch, policy setting, and configuration option; and a first one of the device vulnerabilities is associated with at least two alternative remediation techniques; a query signal comprising the vulnerability identifier for the first one of the device vulnerabilities; a response signal, automatically generated in response to the query signal, that describes the at least two remediation techniques; a processor; and a memory encoded with programming instructions executable by the processor to: receive the response signal; select one of the at least two alternative remediation techniques; and apply the selected remediation technique.