Method and system for providing an external trusted agent for one or more computer systems
First Claim
1. A monitor that monitors the security state of a remote computer system, the monitor comprising:
- a computing device;
a communications medium interconnecting the computing device with the remote computer system;
a pair of data-storage media each containing a sequence of encryption keys, one data-storage medium local to the monitor, and the other data-storage medium local to the remote computer system; and
a program, running on the computing device, that exchanges with the remote computer system, over the communications medium, messages encrypted using one or more encryption keys extracted from the data-storage medium local to the computer system in order to monitor the security state of the computer system.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An external personal computer or other computing device is employed as an external security-state monitor to monitor the security state of one or more computer systems. The security-state monitor creates pairs of write-once CDs containing an identical sequence of encryption keys. One CD of a pair remains with the security-state monitor, and the other CD of the pair is provided to the system administrator of a computer system. Keys are employed by the security-state monitor and computer system one time only, and the current key employed can be specified by an index into the sequence of keys stored on the duplicate CDs. When the computer system carries out an initial boot into a secure state, the computer system informs the security-state monitor using the current key from the computer system'"'"'s CD. The security-state monitor accordingly determines that the computer system is currently secure. Prior to loading the executing the first untrusted software, the secure software executing on the computer system sends a message to the security-state monitor indicating that the computer system is transitioning to an insecure state.
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Citations
18 Claims
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1. A monitor that monitors the security state of a remote computer system, the monitor comprising:
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a computing device;
a communications medium interconnecting the computing device with the remote computer system;
a pair of data-storage media each containing a sequence of encryption keys, one data-storage medium local to the monitor, and the other data-storage medium local to the remote computer system; and
a program, running on the computing device, that exchanges with the remote computer system, over the communications medium, messages encrypted using one or more encryption keys extracted from the data-storage medium local to the computer system in order to monitor the security state of the computer system. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A method for monitoring and reporting the security state of a remote computer system, the method comprising:
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providing a monitor computing device interconnected with the remote computer system by a communications medium;
providing a pair of data-storage media, each containing a sequence of encryption keys, one data-storage medium local to the monitor computing device, and the other data-storage medium local to the remote computer system; and
receiving messages from the remote computer system over the communications medium by the monitor and storing an indication, by the monitor, of the security state of the computer system determined by the monitor from the received messages. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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Specification