Patent ID: 7474655

Claim:
A method for restricting a communication service between a first computer and a second computer in a subnetwork via a countermeasures apparatus, comprising: a data input step for inputting restriction criteria stored in the countermeasures apparatus; a start command step for transmitting a set of restrictions including the restriction criteria to the first and second computers; a software agent request step using hypertext transfer protocol in a request packet including a distribution site address for requesting transmission of a software agent from a server beyond the subnetwork; a packet acquiring step for acquiring the request packet transmitted from the first computer before being received by the server beyond the network, the request packet acquired by the countermeasures apparatus; a step for converting a communication address of the second computer, stored in the first computer, into a communication address of the countermeasure apparatus, and for converting a communication address of the first computer, stored in the second computer, into the communication address of the countermeasure apparatus, in response to the set of restrictions in the start command step; a first determination step for determining if the request packet is for installing the software agent based on the http protocol and distribution site address used in the software agent request step; a second determination step for determining if the packet acquired in the packet acquiring step should be blocked and discarded according to the restriction criteria; a first transmission step for transmitting the packet acquired from the first computer to the second computer if the packet acquired in the packet acquiring step is not blocked and discarded in the second determination step; a receiving step for receiving a response packet by the countermeasures apparatus from the second computer upon execution of the first transmission step; and a second transmission step for transmitting the response packet from the countermeasure apparatus to the first computer.