System and method for intelligence based security

1. A method for securing data, implemented in a computer system, the computer system including a tangible, non-transitory storage section, a user input device, an output device, and a processor, the method comprising:

receiving, at the computer system, one or more parameters defining a security policy;

dynamically generating, by executing with the processor of the computer system instructions stored in the storage section, one or more intelligent security rules based on the security policy, each rule including at least one qualifier and at least one attribute;

maintaining the one or more intelligent security rules, by executing with the processor of the computer system instructions stored in the storage section, for use by an intelligent security filter operable to leverage the one or more intelligent security rules;

determining whether applying the one or more intelligent security rules would cause a system misconfiguration; and

responsive to the determining step, altering the one or more intelligent security rules to avoid the system misconfiguration.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the attribute of each rule indicates whether data identified by the rule is to be encrypted or to remain unencrypted and, if encrypted, what type of encryption and what type of key are to be used for encryption.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the qualifier of each rule includes a pathname, path scope, data type, file type, file system owner, file system attributes and running process attributes and owner.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the parameters of the security policy include one or more of a pathname, path scope, data type, data ownership, category of data and active process attributes.

5. A system for securing data, comprising: at least one processor; a memory operably associated with the at least one processor; and

a program of instructions storable in the memory and executable by the processor, the program of instructions including:

at least one instruction operable to apply one or more security measures to data identified by one or more of: a pathname, data type, file type, file system owner, file system attributes, and running process attributes and owner, maintain the one or more security measures applicable to data while the data is not in use, and automatically remove the one or more security measures from data in response to detecting a triggering file operation requesting access to the data;

at least one instruction operable to apply one or more security measures to data in response to detecting a triggering file operation, the one or more security measures being applied based on one or more intelligence based encryption rules, each intelligence based encryption rule including one or more of: a path at which data to be protected is stored, a scope of data to be protected stored at the path, and one or more attributes of processes required to be running for data to be protected;

at least one instruction operable to receive one or more parameters defining a security policy, and generate the one or more intelligence based encryption rules based on the security policy;

determining whether applying the one or more intelligent security rules would cause a system misconfiguration; and

responsive to the determining step, altering the one or more intelligent security rules to avoid the system misconfiguration.

6. The system of claim 5 , further comprising the program of instructions including at least one instruction operable to block pending file open operations until after appropriate security measures have been applied to the file.

7. The system of claim 5 , wherein the intelligence based encryption rules include a type of data to be protected.

8. The system of claim 5 , wherein the program of instructions is operable to apply one or more security measures to a paging file associated with one or more applications.

9. The system of claim 5 , wherein the program of instructions is further operable to: store a representation of one or more user credentials in a secure location; remove one or more protective measures from the representation in response to a request seeking access to the representation; and restore the representation to a secure location when not in use by a requesting application.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the representation includes a hash of a domain password; and where the secure location is outside a registry.

11. The system of claim 5 , wherein the program of instructions includes at least one instruction operable to apply one or more security measures to data maintained on accessible removable media.

12. A method for securing data, implemented in a computer system, the computer system including a tangible, non-transitory storage section, a processor, a first set of instructions comprising an intelligent security filter, and a second set of instructions comprising a security service, the instructions being executable by the processor, the method comprising:

receiving, at the security service, parameters defining a security policy;

generating, at the security service, one or more intelligent security rules based on the security policy;

detecting, at the intelligent security filter, a triggering file operation generated by an application run by or on behalf of a user;

determining, at the intelligent security, whether any of the one or more intelligent security rules requires a security measure to be applied to data in the storage section in response to the triggering file operation;

responsive to determining that the triggering file operation requires a security measure, applying the security measure at the intelligent security filter;

wherein the detecting, determining, generating, and applying steps are performed without user interaction;

wherein the security measure is applied without direction and control from the application;

determining whether applying the one or more intelligent security rules would cause a system misconfiguration; and

responsive to the determining step, altering the one or more intelligent security rules to avoid the system misconfiguration.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the security measure includes one or more techniques selected from the group consisting of: encrypting data and writing the encrypted data to the storage section, decrypting data and providing the decrypted data to the application, and restricting access to data.

14. The method of claim 12 , wherein the one of more intelligent security rules include at least one qualifier and at least one attribute.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the attribute of each rule indicates whether data identified by the rule is to be encrypted or to remain unencrypted and, if encrypted, what type of encryption and what type of key are to be used for encryption.

16. The method of claim 14 , wherein the qualifier of each rule includes one or more of: a pathname, path scope, data type, file type, file system owner, file system attributes and running process attributes and owner.

17. The method of claim 12 , wherein at least one of the one or more intelligent security rules requires a security measure to be applied to data stored in removable media.

18. The method of claim 12 , wherein the computer system further includes a network connection, and wherein at least one of the one or more intelligent security rules requires a security measure to be applied to data stored in a remote storage location that is accessed via the network connection.

19. The method of claim 12 , further comprising logging security relevant file operations to the storage section based on the one or more intelligent security rules.

20. The method of claim 12 , wherein the security measure includes encrypting data placed in an application-swap file with the intelligent security filter.

21. The method of claim 12 , wherein the security measure includes decrypting data placed in an application-swap file with the intelligent security filter when the application-swap file is accessed by the application.