Patent ID: 8590046

Claim:
A method for scanning a computing device, the method comprising: receiving, from one of a plurality of network access control services, login event information associated with a computing device attempting to log in to a network, wherein the login event information includes one or more of an Internet Protocol (IP) address, a Media Access Control (MAC) address or a host name, associated with the computing device attempting to log in to the network; determining, via a computing device processor, that scanning of the computing device is required by (1) determining that at least one of the IP address, the MAC address or the host name is not included in a list of previously scanned computing devices, wherein the list identifies the previously scanned computing devices by at least one of IP addresses, MAC addresses or host names and, if the at least one of the IP address, the MAC address or the host name is included in the list, (2) determining that a last-in-time scan of the computing device occurred outside of a predetermined scan period of time; determining, via computing device processor, that scanning of the computing device requires priority scanning based on either (1) previous scan results indicating non-compliance or (2) the last-in-time scan of the computing device occurring outside a predetermined priority period of time; in response to determining that scanning of the computing device requires priority scanning, placing the computing device in a high-priority scanning queue that is configured to scan the computing device when a next-in-time scanning thread becomes available; and in response to the next-in-time scanning thread becoming available, initiating, via a computing device processor, a remote scan of the computing device based on the determination that the computing device requires scanning.