Patent ID: 7386883

Claim:
A method of administering a countermeasure for a computer security threat to a computer system, comprising: establishing a baseline identification of an operating system type and an operating system release level for the computer system that is compatible with a Threat Management Vector (TMV); receiving a TMV including therein a first field that provides identification of at least one operating system type that is affected by a computer security threat, a second field that provides identification of an operating system release level for the operating system type and a third field that provides identification of a set of possible countermeasures for an operating system type and an operating system release level; and processing countermeasures that are identified in the TMV if the TMV identifies the operating system type and operating system release level for the computer system as being affected by the computer security threat; wherein the processing comprises: determining whether the TMV identifies the operating system type and operating system release level for the computer system as being affected by the computer security threat; adding at least one instance identifier to the TMV to account for multiple instances of the operating system running on the computer system, if the TMV identifies the operating system type and operating system release level for the computer system as being affected by the computer security threat; and processing countermeasures that are identified in the TMV for the instance of the operating system type and operating system release level when the instance of the operating system type and operating system release level is instantiated in the computer system.