Patent ID: 7827607

Claim:
A method for enforcing client compliance on a network, comprising: storing to a database, identifiers of non-compliant devices on the network detected by security sensors, the security sensors including at least one of an intrusion detection system (IDS) sensor and a vulnerability assessment (VA) sensor; receiving, over the network, a query from a self-policing target device, the query requesting a compliance status of the self-policing target device from the database of non-compliant devices, and the query including an identifier of the self-policing target device; comparing the identifier of the self-policing target device in the query against the identifiers of the non-compliant devices in the database; determining a compliance status of the self-policing target device based on the identifiers of the non-compliant devices stored in the database and the identifier of the self-policing target device, the compliance status indicating whether or not the identifier of the self-policing target device is included in the database of non-compliant devices detected by the security sensors; and transmitting, over the network, the compliance status to the self-policing target device, wherein in response to the status indicating that the identifier of the self-policing target device is included in the database of non-compliant devices detected by the security sensors, the self-policing target device initiates a remedial action to put itself in compliance with network security policies.