A method and system for distributing and enforcing security policies is
provided. A firewall agent executing at a host computer system that is to
be protected receives security policies for the enforcement engines
responsible for enforcing the security policies on the host computer
system. A security policy has rules that each provide a condition and
action to be performed when the condition is satisfied. A rule also has a
rule type that is used by the distribution system to identify the
security components that are responsible for enforcing the rules. To
distribute the security policies that have been received at a host
computer system, the firewall agent identifies to which enforcement
engine a rule applies based in part on rule type. The firewall agent then
distributes the rule to the identified enforcement engine, which then
enforces the rule.