Computer network security

1. A system comprising at least one computer, the at least one computer being equipped with software; said software including:

a) a representation of a network comprising

i) a plurality of other computers and

ii) a network node;

b) a communications requirements file having communications requirement for an application to be executed by said network node;

c) a security policy file defining a security policy for said network node; and

d) an automated tool configured and employed to automatically carry out an impact assessment to determine whether said communications requirements will communicate through security domain policies of each security domain to be traversed in said representation of a network, the automated tool being further configured and employed, in the event that the impact assessment determines that said security policy and said communication requirements will not communicate through security domain policies of each security domain to be traversed in said representation of a network, to

i) automatically adjust at least one of

A) said representation of a network,

B) said security policy, and

C) said communications requirements and thereafter,

ii) automatically carry out a further impact assessment to determine whether the security policy and the communications requirements are compatible;

the automated tool being still further configured and employed to assess the impact of the introduction of the application into a real network before the application is introduced into a real network.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the automated tool is further configured to automatically relax the security policy in the event the communications requirements are not met in the impact assessment.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the automated tool is further configured to automatically tighten the security policy in the event the communications requirements are exceeded in the impact assessment.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the communications requirements file forms part of an application file.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the automated tool comprises a behaviour engine.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the automated tool is configured to automatically adjust more than one of the representation of a network, the security policy, and the communications requirements.

7. A method comprising the steps of:

a) providing a software representation of a network comprising a plurality of computers and a network node, said software representation of a network residing in a system comprising at least one system computer;

b) providing a security policy file defining a security policy for said network node on said system;

c) providing a communications requirements file having communications requirements for a particular application that is intended to be executed within said network node on said system; and

d) providing an automated tool on the system, the automated tool being configured and employed to automatically carry out an impact assessment to determine whether said security policy and said communications requirements are compatible, the automated tool being further configured and employed, in the event that the impact assessment determined that said security policy and said communications requirements are not compatible, to

i) automatically adjust at least one of

A) said representation of a network,

B) said security policy and

C) said communications requirements and, thereafter,

ii) automatically carry out further impact assessment to determine whether the security policy and the communications requirements are compatible,

the automated tool being still further configured and employed to assess the impact of the introduction of the application into a real network before the application is introduced into a real network.

8. The method of 7 , wherein said step of providing said software representation includes at least one of defining said representation, and receiving said representation.

9. A method as claimed in claim 7 , wherein said step of providing said security policy includes at least one of defining said security policy and receiving said security policy.

10. A method as claimed in claim 7 , wherein said step of providing said communications requirements includes at least one of defining said communications requirements and receiving said communications requirements.

11. A method as claimed in claim 10 , wherein the communications requirements are provided as part of an application file.

12. A method as claimed in claim 8 , further comprising at least one of automatically adjusting the representation of said network and automatically adjusting said security policy.

13. A method as claimed in claim 12 , wherein, in the event that said communications requirements are not met at said network node, said security policy is automatically relaxed.

14. A method as claimed in claim 12 wherein, in the event that said communications requirements are exceeded at said network node, said security policy is automatically tightened.

15. A method as claimed in claim 7 , further comprising automatically adjusting said communications requirements.

16. A method as claimed in claim 7 , wherein the automated tool comprises a behaviour engine.

17. A method comprising the steps of:

a) providing a software representation of a network comprising a plurality of computers and a network node, said software representation of a network residing in a system comprising at least one system computer;

b) providing a security policy file defining a security policy for said network node on said system;

c) providing a communications requirements for a particular application that is intended to be executed within said network node on said system;

d) providing a automated tool on the system, the automated tool being configured and employed to automatically carry out an impact assessment to determine whether said security policy and said communications requirements are compatible, the automated tool being further configured and employed, in the event that the impact assessment determined that said security policy and said communications requirements are not compatible, to

i) automatically adjust at least one of

A) said representation of a network,

B) said security policy and

C) said communications requirements and, thereafter,

ii) automatically carry out further impact assessment to determine whether the security policy and the communications requirements are compatible,

the automated tool being still further configured and employed to assess the impact of the introduction of the application into a real network before the application is introduced into a real network, and

e) automatically adjusting said security policy, wherein in the event that said communications requirements are not met at said network node, said security policy is relaxed, and in the event that said communications requirements are exceeded at said network node, said security policy is tightened.

18. A method as claimed in claim 17 which is performed before the particular application is introduced into a real network.