Patent ID: 8627060

Claim:
A method for operating a trusted network interface for monitoring network traffic passing through a plurality of network security appliances, comprising: receiving, at a management system, warrant information that is derived from a judicial warrant, and comprises: a judicially executable action that is executable only with approval, wherein the judicially executable action includes authorization for participating in a denial of service attack; an approval from the judicial warrant to execute the judicially executable action; and an identification of at least some of the plurality of network security appliances each to execute the judicially executable action; wherein the judicial warrant satisfies legal requirements approving an act to be performed; generating a control command instructing the at least some of the plurality of network security appliances identified in the warrant information to execute the judicially executable action in an orchestrated manner according to a coordinated plan of action; digitally signing the control command with a digital certificate associated with the management system; encrypting the digitally signed control command; transmitting the digitally signed and encrypted control command to the at least some of the plurality of network security appliances identified in the warrant information; and receiving confirmation from the at least some of the plurality of network security appliances that the judicially executable action has been executed.