Patent ID: 7773540

Claim:
A method for processing data communications traffic, the method comprising: detecting data communications traffic arriving at a network device for an intended recipient device; determining if the data communications traffic is at least one of initial data communications traffic for a new data communications session, and continuing data communications traffic for an existing data communications session; if the data communications traffic is initial data communications traffic, proxy responding to a source of the initial data communications traffic with an expected response that provides an appearance of existence of an intended recipient device of the initial data communications traffic, regardless if the intended recipient device of the initial data communications traffic actually exists; and if the data communications traffic is initial data communications traffic for a new data communications session: forwarding the data communications traffic to a replay system, the replay system: i) engaging the source of the data communications traffic in early stages of a communications protocol session associated with the data communication traffic to determine if the source is engaged in malicious processing, wherein engaging the intended recipient device with the cached session state of the communications protocol session to roll-forward the communications protocol session with the intended recipient device comprises: adjusting session information between the source and intended recipient device during the lifetime of the communications protocol session to account for the replay system engaging in the early stages of the communications protocol session with the source of the data communications traffic; ii) caching session state associated with the communications protocol session; and ii) if it is substantially determined that the source is not engaged in malicious processing, engaging the intended recipient device with the cached session state of the communications protocol session to roll-forward the communications protocol session with the intended recipient device to allow the intended recipient device to communicate with the source of the data communications traffic.