Enforcing good network hygiene using reputation-based automatic remediation

Abstract

Reputation-based automatic remediation is applied for enforcing good network hygiene of a client. A scanning module scans the client to detect files on the client in response to an attempt by the client to connect to a secure network. A reputation score module retrieves onto the client a reputation score for each of the files detected. The reputation scores can be retrieved from a reputation database of a reputation server storing reputation data for files. A hygiene score module calculates on the client a hygiene score for the client based on the reputation scores for the files on the client. The hygiene score indicates a likelihood of the client to engage in risky behavior. The threshold determination module determines whether the hygiene score exceeds a threshold for bad client hygiene. The policy module applies a policy to the client that restricts network access in response to the hygiene score for the client exceeding the threshold.