Patent ID: 8677464

Claim:
A method for managing login credentials and communication sessions of a plurality of intelligent electronic devices (IEDs), comprising: connecting each of a plurality of IEDs to a session manager, the plurality of IEDs comprising a first subset and a second subset, the first subset of IEDs being the only IEDs in the plurality of IEDs to support an advanced security feature; generating a plurality of login credentials for each of the plurality of IEDs using the session manager; storing the plurality login credentials in a database accessible by the session manager; creating a first communication session between the session manager and an operator access device, the operator access device requesting access to an IED in the second subset; creating a second communication session between the session manager and the requested IED by the session manager providing login credentials of the requested IED; and simulating the advanced security feature by using the session manager as a proxy for communications between the first communication session and the second communication session, the session manager enforcing the advanced security feature in the second communication session.