The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.

The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.

Date of Patent:
Dec. 12, 1995

Filed:

Nov. 16, 1994
Applicant:
Inventors:

Bruce W Watson, Norcross, GA (US);

R Jeff Lee, Lawrenceville, GA (US);

Assignee:

National Semiconductor Corporation, Santa Clara, CA (US);

Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Assistant Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G06F / ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
395650 ; 380-4 ;
Abstract

Tests are performed prior to or during the boot operation to determine whether files are corrupted. This may indicate the presence of a virus. If a potential error is detected, boot is halted, allowing the user to boot from uncorrupted files. In another embodiment, an uniquely formatted floppy diskette is used as an access diskette serves as a hardware key to gain access. In another embodiment, a host controls information stored locally. In another embodiment, security from unauthorized access is provided once a valid user has legitimately accessed a computer. In response to a predefined hot key or a predetermined period of time during which the user has not provided input, portions of the computer are disabled. Upon entry of access information by the valid user, the disabled features are enabled. In another embodiment, access to the computer is made more difficult in response to invalid access attempts. In one embodiment, once a threshold number of invalid access attempts is reached, the computer is locked up, requiring reboot, thereby increasing the difficulty of a would be intruder to gain access to the computer. In one embodiment, once the threshold value is reached, it is reset to a lower value.


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