Patent ID: 6988134

Claim:
A method for using a computer to automatically discover the existence and type of assets in an organization, comprising the steps of: using one or more network fingerprints to determine the existence of one or more networks and gather information about any discovered networks to determine the type and attributes thereof including the valid addresses on each discovered network, and make an entry in element and data tables recording the attributes of each discovered network; using the valid addresses of each discovered network and one or more network interface card fingerprints, discovering all network interface cards that exist on each discovered network and the attributes of each and making an entry in said element and data tables for each found network interface card; for each network interface card found, using one or more fingerprints for the operating systems the process is capable of detecting, determining the operating system that is controlling each computer coupled to one of the found networks by one of the found network interface cards and making an entry for each found operating system in said element and data tables; and for each found operating system, using one or more fingerprints for one or more elements of interest to, for each fingerprint, gather attribute data about the element corresponding to the fingerprint being used via said operating system and, using rules in or pointed to by said fingerprint, analyze the attribute data gathered about the element corresponding to the fingerprint to calculate the probability of the elements existence, and make an entry in the element and data tables regarding each found element.