Abstract: The present invention provides a pattern-oriented intrusion detection system and method that defines patterns of intrusion based on object privilege and information flow in secure computer systems to detect actual intrusion occurrences. This approach has the advantage of detecting context-dependent intrusions such as those caused by inadvertent execution of foreign programs containing viruses or Trojan Horses and also those caused by unintended use of foreign input data. The present invention can track both information and privilege flows within a system, and has the ability to uniformly define various types of intrusion patterns. Operational security problems can lead to intrusion in secure computer systems. With this approach, explicitly defined types of intrusion patterns due to operational security problems can be detected.