Patent ID: 8310923

Claim:
A system configured to provide a subscription-based network protection service for multiple subscribing hosts, the system comprising: one or more processing devices; a network connection configured to communicatively couple the system to the multiple subscribing hosts via a network; and one or more modules configured to, when executed by the one or more processing devices, provide the subscription-based network protection service for the multiple subscribing hosts by, for each of the multiple subscribing hosts: obtaining information from the subscribing host for use in configuring protective assistance provided by the subscription-based network protection service to the subscribing host; configuring the protective assistance provided to the subscribing host in a manner specific to the subscribing host, the configuring including determining from the obtained information a triggering condition corresponding to the subscribing host for providing the protective assistance and a set of rules corresponding to the subscribing host for filtering network traffic directed to the subscribing host; monitoring for an occurrence of the determined triggering condition for the subscribing host; and upon detection of the occurrence of the determined triggering condition for the subscribing host, providing the protective assistance to the subscribing host in the manner specific to the subscribing host by, causing network traffic directed to the subscribing host to be rerouted to the subscription-based network protection service, wherein network traffic directed to the subscribing host prior to the detection of the triggering condition is not received by the subscription-based network protection service; filtering the network traffic rerouted to the network protection service according to the determined set of rules corresponding to the subscribing host; and forwarding at least some of the filtered network traffic to the subscribing host.