Patent ID: 8286239

Claim:
A network security system, comprising: a web risk service operating on a server comprising a processing node and external to network edges of at least one system, the web risk service configured to: receive a web request from a computer within the at least one system, the web request identifying at least one network address; determine a web risk index score for the at least one network address, the web risk index score based on a third party analysis, a passive analysis comprising an in-line analysis of the web request in real time, and an active analysis comprising a plurality of queries to the at least one network address with each query configured to solicit a different response in order to identify separate risk information; compare the determined web risk index score to at least one threshold value; handle the web request based on the comparison; and provide the determined web risk index score to an authority node such that the authority node shares the determined web risk index score with a plurality of additional processing nodes; wherein the web risk service operates at the processing node with all web requests from the computer sent over the Internet via a tunnel, a transparent proxy, a forward proxy, or redirection to the processing node.