Scalable network security detection and prevention platform

Abstract

This disclosure provides a network security architecture that permits installation of different software security products as virtual machines (VMs). By relying on a common data format and standardized communication structure (e.g., using pre-established, cross-platform messaging), a general architecture can be created and used to dynamically build and reconfigure interaction between both similar and dissimilar security products. Examples are provided where an intrusion monitoring system (IMS) can be used to detect network threats based on distributed threat analytics, passing detected threats to other security products (e.g., products with different capabilities from different vendors) to trigger automatic, dynamically configured communication and reaction. A network security provider using this infrastructure can provide hosted or managed boundary security to a diverse set of clients, each on a customized basis.