Patent ID: 7614078

Claim:
A method, comprising: receiving, from an access requester that does not have access to a data communication network, a request to access the data communication network; the access control server attempting to obtain assistance from an external validation server that normally handles one or more credentials used for authentication to process the request; storing and maintaining, separate from the external validation server, access requester history data for the access requester, wherein the access requester history data comprises one or more of a location of validation of one or more prior access requests, a length of time since a last successful access request from the access requester, a length of time that an account associated with the access requester has existed, a type of credential associated with the access request, a group membership associated with the access requester, a MAC address or other unique identifier associated with the access request, or a status credential that represents a security configuration of a device associated with the assess requester; determining that an access control server cannot process the access request associated with the access requester, wherein said determining that the access control server cannot process the access request includes failing to obtain the assistance from the external validation server; and in response to failing to obtain the assistance from the external validation server: the access control server analyzing the access requester history data to determine a threshold access level for the access requester, wherein the access requester history data describes a history of attempts to access resources by a set of users, wherein the set of users includes the access requester, and wherein the threshold access level is an expression of how likely the access requester is a legitimate access requester; the access control server selecting a session profile for the access requester based on the threshold access level for the access requester, wherein the session profile indicates one or more actions the access requester is authorized to perform in the network; and based on the session profile, the access control server authorizing, without accessing one or more external servers to authenticate the one or more credentials that are normally handled by the one or more external servers, the access requester to perform one or more actions in the network.