Patent ID: 7712143

Claim:
A computer node, comprising: a network interface; a processor communicatively coupled with the network interface and having an operating system executing thereon; and a protective hardware element communicatively coupled with the processor, wherein the protective hardware element is not managed by the operating system, and wherein the computer node receives one or more protective software elements via the network interface and installs the protective software elements on the computer node under management of the operating system, and wherein the computer node executes the protective software elements under management of the operating system whereby access of processes to one or more protected resources on the computer node is regulated, suspicious events occurring on the computer node are logged in a log file maintained on the computer node and integrity of the protective software elements and the log file are verified at least in part by validating one or more hash values of the protective software elements cryptographically signed by the protective hardware element and validating a hash value of the log file cryptographically signed by the protective hardware element.