Patent ID: 8417963

Claim:
A secure storage device (RWS) comprising an auditing mechanism, the auditing mechanism comprising: a controller comprising a processor and one of: a one time programmable memory unit; and a read only memory, the controller operative to control the RWS device; a plurality of positive counters operative to count positive events, wherein positive events comprise at least any of: successful authentication of code; and getting new and authenticated versions of software; a plurality of negative counters operative to count negative events that increase the level of suspicion that the RWS is under attack, wherein negative events comprise at least any of: failure of code authentication; and failure in data authentication; an assigner which assigns a weighting to each positive event and each negative event, the weighting reflecting a significance of said each positive event and said each negative event; a policy utilizing the plurality of positive counters and the plurality of negative counters in a decision making process to determine if sanctions should be applied; and a sanction unit operative to apply at least one sanction chosen from a group of sanctions comprising: causing the controller to turn a part of the RWS device off; causing the controller to reset a part of the RWS device; causing the a part of the RWS device to enter an infinite loop; and corrupting data stored on the RWS.