Patent ID: 8776208

Claim:
A method of regulating transmissions using a firewall, the method comprising: receiving a first transmission at the firewall, the firewall being associated with at least a first multi-parameter firewall rule and at least one other multi-parameter firewall rule, each of the first multi-parameter firewall rule and the at least one other multi-parameter firewall rule having at least a first parameter, a connection security parameter relating to one or more types of connection security, a first field that specifies an action for that multi-parameter firewall rule, and another field that specifies whether transmissions not meeting the connection security parameter should be blocked; determining that properties of the first transmission do not meet the first parameter of the first multi-parameter firewall rule; handling the first transmission according to the at least one other multi-parameter firewall rule without determining whether the properties of the first transmission meet the connection security parameter of the first multi-parameter firewall rule; receiving a second transmission at the firewall; determining that properties of the second transmission meet the first parameter of the first multi-parameter firewall rule and do not meet the connection security parameter of the first multi-parameter firewall rule; blocking the second transmission with the firewall without determining whether the properties of the second transmission meet parameters of the at least one other multi-parameter firewall rule if the other field of the first multi-parameter firewall rule specifies that transmissions not meeting the connection security parameter should be blocked; receiving a third transmission at the firewall; determining that properties of the third transmission meet the first parameter of the first multi-parameter firewall rule and meet the connection security parameter of the first multi-parameter firewall rule; and taking an action regarding the third transmission that is specified by the first field of the first multi-parameter firewall rule.