Patent ID: 7577623

Claim:
A data processing system for providing real-time response to security threats comprising: a bus; a storage device connected to the bus, wherein the storage device contains computer usable code; at least one managed device connected to the bus; a communications unit connected to the bus; and a processing unit connected to the bus, wherein the processing unit executes the computer usable code to receive data collected by a system monitor; to process the received data using a security threat response tool that includes: a knowledge base that associates security threat events with system resources and further specifies responsive actions that may be undertaken in response to the security threat events, wherein each of the security threat events has an associated security threat risk; and an inference engine that includes rules for determining whether to initiate a responsive action, said processing the received data comprising: to compare the received data against information in the knowledge base to identify a security threat value, wherein the security threat event is associated within the knowledge base with a system resource and an associated responsive action having an associated action risk value; to compare the associated security threat risk value to the associated action risk value; to determine whether a user configured trust component is greater than the associated action risk value response responsive to the associated security threat risk value being greater than the associated action risk value, wherein the user configured trust component specifies a level of trust assigned by the user, wherein the user configured trust component is a single configuration value set by a system administrator for the security threat response tool; and to implement the associated responsive action responsive to determining that the user configured trust component is greater than the associated action risk value.