Patent ID: 6906709

Claim:
A method of visualizing information about the security of a network, the method comprising: providing a 3-D visualization tool for simulating 3-D space on a two dimensional display device, said tool for accessing a database which relationally associates security events with network elements, wherein said database includes: temporal information reflecting a time at which each said security event occurred; information relating to a first property of each network element; and information relating to a second property of each network element; wherein each said security event is associated with at least one of a plurality of categories of security events; wherein said network elements are represented by geometric objects; visually depicting at least some of said categories of security events in a first section of said simulated 3-D space; wherein said first section of simulated 3-D space displays a first graph having a security event category axis and a temporal axis, each said displayed security event being visually indicated at a position on said graph corresponding to the category and time of the security event; visually depicting at least some of said network elements in a second section of said simulated 3-D space; wherein said second section of simulated 3-D space displays a second graph having an axis pertaining to said first property and an axis pertaining to said second property, said graphical objects representing said network elements being displayed on the graph at axes positions corresponding to the first and second properties thereof; and displaying association lines in said 3-D simulated space between one or more displayed categories of security events and one or more displayed network elements; wherein said association lines being drawn between said first graph and said second graph.