Patent ID: 8914341

Claim:
A method for continuous compliance assessment comprising: receiving, by a compliance server, change data associated with a change to a target host rule detected by a collection policy that defines a scope of what change data is to be collected, and for which rules of the target host, the change data comprising: (a) an identification of the target host, (b) an identification of the collection policy, and (c) element data for the change to the target host rule; determining, by the compliance server, whether the change to the target host rule meets one or more of a plurality of compliance policies associated with the collection policy, the determining comprising: matching the collection policy with the one or more of the plurality of compliance policies, evaluating whether the target host specified in the change data is associated with one or more waivers and thereby determining that the target host is not associated with the one or more waivers, and evaluating the element data against expressions of the matching one or more compliance policies, the expressions specifying requirements of the matching one or more compliance policies; and generating, by the compliance server, one or more test results based at least on results of the determining, the one or more test results indicating whether the change to the target host rule is in compliance with the matching one or more compliance policies, and when the change is not in compliance with the matching one or more compliance policies, generating appropriate element data for the target host rule to place the target host rule into compliance with the matching one or more compliance policies.