Patent attributes
Methods and systems for dynamically optimized rule-based security policy management are provided. A request is received by a network security management device to add a new traffic flow policy rule to multiple existing policy rules managed by the network security management device. Dependencies of the new traffic flow policy rule on the existing policy rules are automatically determined. An updated set of policy rules is formed by incorporating the new traffic flow policy rule within the existing policy rules based on the dependencies. The updated set of policy rules is then optimized by grouping, reordering and/or deleting a sub-set of policy rules of the updated set of policy rules based on one or more of weights assigned to particular types of traffic, preference settings, priority settings, network traffic characteristics and usage statistics for each policy rule of the updated set of policy rules.
