Patent ID: 8701177

Claim:
A computer program product for reporting permitted message flows through a firewall, the computer program product comprising: one or more computer-readable non-transitory storage devices and program instructions stored on the one or more storage devices, the program instructions comprising: program instructions to generate and display a firewall icon representing the firewall and a network icon, the network icon representing a first network; program instructions to generate and display a first arrow in a first color pointing from the displayed firewall icon to the displayed network icon to indicate that a first communication is permitted to the first network, the first arrow displayed in the first color to represent a security level of a second network from which the first communication originates and to which the firewall is coupled; program instructions, responsive to a user selection of the displayed first arrow, to determine and display a list of ports from the second network that are permitted by the firewall to originate messages to the first network and a list of ports of the first network that are permitted by the firewall to receive the messages from the second network; program instructions to generate and display a second arrow in a second, different color having a substantially triangular tip visually pointing from the displayed firewall icon to the displayed network icon to indicate that a second communication is permitted to the first network, the second arrow displayed in the second, different color to represent a security level of a third network from which the second communication originates and to which the firewall is coupled; and program instructions, responsive to a user selection of the displayed second arrow, to determine and display a list of ports from the third network that are permitted by the firewall to originate messages to the first network and a list of ports of the first network that are permitted by the firewall to receive the messages from the third network; and wherein the second network has a different security level than the third network as indicated by the first and second arrows being respectively displayed in the first and second, different colors.