Patent ID: 8037290

Claim:
A method of providing computer security including: establishing a connection from a computing system to a network; receiving, in response to detection of the connection by a server, a network address and a bootstrap program identifier at the computing system via the network; downloading, automatically, a bootstrap program associated with the bootstrap program identifier and the network address; receiving a pre-operating system at the computing system via the network by the bootstrap program, the pre-operating system selected automatically by the server based on a type of the computing system; booting the computing system into a pre-operating system environment using the received pre-operating system; performing a security check of the computing system, using the pre-operating system environment, to ensure conformity with a security requirement received from a repository external to the computing system; using the pre-operating system environment to provide to the computing system a current security data that is stored in and received from an external repository that is not part of the pre-operating system environment or a primary operating system environment of the computing system, wherein the security data is based on a plurality of factors including a type of the computing system; rendering the computing system more secure with respect to a vulnerability associated with the primary operating system environment using the security data based at least in part on the security check, wherein rendering the computing system more secure comprises configuring using the pre-operating system environment, a firewall of the primary operating system; providing validation of the conformity with the security requirement using the pre-operating system environment, wherein validation comprises a credential checked by the network during an attempt by the computer system to connect to the network; and booting the computing system into an operating system environment other than the pre-operating system environment.