Network, method and computer readable medium for distributing security updates to select nodes on a network

Abstract

A network having a intrusion protection system comprising a network medium, a management node connected to the network medium and running an intrusion prevention system management application, and a plurality of nodes connected to the network medium and running an instance of an intrusion protection system application, at least one of the nodes having an identification assigned thereto based on a logical assignment grouping one or more of the plurality of nodes, each node sharing the identification being commonly vulnerable to at least one network exploit is provided. A method of transmitting a command and security update message to a subset of nodes of a plurality of network nodes comprising generating an update message by a management node of the network, addressing the update message to a network address shared by the subset of nodes, transmitting the update message, and receiving and processing the update message by the subset of nodes is provided. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon a set of instructions to be executed, the set of instructions, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform a computer method of generating, by the computer, a message addressed to a subset of nodes on a network, transmitting the message on a network medium of the network to the subset of nodes, receiving the message by a router terminating the network medium, and forwarding, by the router, the message to any nodes included in the subset of nodes on a second network medium terminated by the router is provided.