Patent ID: 8732837

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of monitoring security-related settings for each of a plurality of computing systems, the method comprising: accessing, by a computing device processor, a plurality of security-related settings for a computing system; accessing, by a computing device processor, an exceptions file including at least one exception associated with at least one of the security-related settings; testing, by a computing device processor, each security-related setting from among the plurality of security-related settings for the computing system, wherein the security-related settings tested include (a) determining whether system files are set to a read-only state, (b) determining whether access passwords are a predetermined length and a predetermined format, and (c) determining whether appropriate access logging functions are activated; assigning, by a computing device processor, one of a “pass” status for each tested security-related setting that passes testing, a “fail” status for each tested security-related setting that fails testing and does not have an associated exception in the execution file, or a “pass with exception” status for each tested security-related setting that fails testing and has an associated exception in the exception file; recording, in computing device memory, based on the testing and at least in part on the at least one exception, the “pass”, “fail” or “pass with exception” status for each security-related setting to produce a compliance report for the computing system; and displaying, on a computing device user-interface, at least a portion of the compliance report including (a) the “pass”, “fail” or “pass with exception” status for each security-related setting tested, (b) percentages for the security-related settings that passed testing, passed with exception and failed, (c) a total number of security-related settings that passed testing and failed testing and (d) a total number of security-related settings tested.