A method in one example implementation includes receiving information related to a network access attempt on a first computing device with the information identifying a software program file associated with the network access attempt. The method also includes evaluating a first criterion to determine whether network traffic associated with the software program file is permitted and then creating a restriction rule to block the network traffic if the network traffic is not permitted. The first criterion includes a trust status of the software program file. In specific embodiments, the method includes pushing the restriction rule to a network protection device that intercepts the network traffic associated with the software program file and applies the restriction rule to the network traffic. In more specific embodiments, the method includes searching a whitelist identifying trustworthy software program files to determine the trust status of the software program file.