Patent ID: 7849500

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for securing a computer network comprising a wired and wireless portion, the method comprising: providing a security component within a wired portion of the computer network, wherein the security component is configured to control the bridging of network activity between the wireless portion and wired portion of the computer network; and through the security component: passively monitoring for network traffic between the wireless and wired portions of the computer network for unknown wireless devices; detecting network traffic between the wireless and wired portions of the computer network for an unknown wireless device; determining at least one identifying characteristic of the unknown wireless device by actively probing the unknown wireless device for an identifying characteristic; determining at least one behavioral characteristic of the unknown wireless device according to the network traffic between the unknown wireless device and devices in the wired portion of the computer network; generating a device profile of the unknown wireless device according to the at least one identifying characteristic and the at least one behavioral characteristic of the unknown wireless device; determining a set of access privileges corresponding to the unknown wireless device according to the device profile; and bridging network traffic between the unknown wireless device and devices in the wired portion of the computer network consistent with the determined access privileges.