identities on the platform for which it will be reporting posture on e g a host id list the amt 408 may communicate the host id list in a message 640 kck to the authentication node 112 in an embodiment the host id list may include mac addresses of the hosts in an embodiment message 640 kck may also include a hash ss the hash ss may be used as session identifier in the negotiation to provide information relating to a present state of a session state data structure of the amt 408 the authentication node 112 may use this information to fill in corresponding fields of its session state data structure fig7 illustrates a session state data structure 700 that may be used in embodiments of the present invention in an embodiment the message 640 kck may also include a liveness marker e g a random value nonce amt the nonce amt may be an unpredictable random value generated by the amt 408 using a hardware and or software random number generator the use of nonces to facilitate liveness check will be described in further detail below in an embodiment the message 640 kck may also include a mac address of the amt mac amt the mac amt may include an internet protocol ip.