Patent ID: 8661499

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for evaluating security policies, the method executed by one or more hardware processors configured to perform a plurality of operations, the operations comprising: determining a policy attribute for each of a plurality of security policies; generating a first policy tree that comprises one or more first security policies from among the plurality of security policies, wherein each security policy of the one or more first security policies emphasizes a first policy attribute over a second policy attribute, and wherein the first policy tree is organized according to the first policy attribute corresponding to each security policy of the one or more first security policies and based on the determining; generating a second policy tree that comprises one or more second security policies from among the plurality of security policies, wherein each security policy of the one or more second security policies emphasizes the second policy attribute over the first policy attribute, wherein the second policy tree is organized according to the second policy attribute corresponding to each security policy of the one or more second security policies and based on the determining, and wherein the second policy attribute is different than the first policy attribute; receiving a request attribute associated with a request to access a resource or network; determining whether the first policy tree or the second policy tree is to be used to evaluate the request to access the resource or the network based on the request attribute, the first policy attribute and the second policy attribute; and in response to the determining, evaluating the one or more first security policies associated with the first policy tree when the first policy tree is to be used to evaluate the request to access the resource or the network, and evaluating the one or more second security policies associated with the second policy tree when the second policy tree is to be used to evaluate the request to access the resource or the network.