Local area network ecosystem of verified computer security resources

Abstract

A router-level computer security component validates multiple endpoint computer security components on multiple endpoint devices in a local area network, based on whether given endpoints each have a specific anti-malware scanning engine and set of signatures used by the router-level component. To validate a given endpoint, the router-level component transmits a code sample which will trigger scanning by the specific anti-malware scanning engine in conjunction with a specific signature of the set, resulting in a specific detection result. In response to receiving the specific, expected detection result in return, the router-component validates the endpoint. The router-level component monitors incoming traffic in the local area network, and load balances security processing of the network traffic of each incoming data stream, based on the security capabilities of the corresponding target endpoint, and the security capabilities and available computational bandwidth of the multiple validated endpoint components and the router-level component.