Patent ID: 8438386

Claim:
A method for controlling access to an Internet resource, the method comprising: transmitting a request for an Internet resource from an Internet-enabled client application from a client-side device of a local area network, the Internet resource residing at a first server; receiving the request for the Internet resource at a security appliance of the local area network prior to transmission of the request over the Internet; determining if a reputation index for the Internet resource is at or above a threshold value established for the local area network, the reputation index generated from a reputation vector for the Internet resource, the reputation vector comprising a plurality of factors for the Internet resource comprising security history, legitimacy, behavior, associations and location, wherein the location factor of the plurality of factors for the reputation vector comprises two or more of: country of domain registration, country of service hosting and country of an internet protocol address block, wherein the legitimacy factor of the plurality of factors for the reputation vector comprises two or more of: age of a domain registration, popularity rank, internet protocol address, number of hosts, top-level domain, and wherein the behavior factor of the plurality of factors for the reputation vector comprises at least one of: plurality of run-time behaviors, script block count, picture count, immediate redirect and response latency; and transmitting a decision transmission to the Internet-enabled client application of the client-side device, the decision transmission allowing or denying access to the Internet resource.