Patent ID: 7003561

Claim:
A method of minimizing the duration of a risk-assessment scan, comprising: a) selecting a plurality of risk-assessment modules for execution during a risk-assessment scan, the risk-assessment modules each including vulnerability checks, and requiring communication via at least one predetermined port; b) determining a set of ports for communicating with a select number of network components; c) executing a port scan of only the set of ports associated with the selected risk-assessment modules and the network components, for reducing the number of ports scanned during the port scan, wherein latency is reduced since a port scan involving 65,536 ports is avoided; d) modifying the set of ports based on the port scan, the set of ports being modified to include only ports available for communicating with the network components; e) comparing the port associated with each selected risk-assessment module with the modified set of ports; and f) conditionally disabling the execution of the risk-assessment modules based on the comparison to minimize the duration of the risk-assessment scan.