prior to transmitting information to a central server security unit 720 may also provide automatic timeouts wherein data input and output from the data processing system is disabled if the device has been inactive for too long a period of time thereby preventing unauthorized access to data on the device once a user re authenticates themselves to the agent the user may then be taken back to where they were before the timeout occurred security unit 720 works in conjunction with encryption unit 708 to encrypt data on the device to prevent unauthorized access to data on the device as well as encrypting data prior to transmission across a network or for implementation of a virtual private network vpn application 700 is provided as an example of an application for providing a gui and automatic background computer maintenance security and communication functions and is not meant to imply any architectural limitations to the present invention those skilled in the art will recognize that application 700 may be modified in many ways without departing from the scope or spirit of the present invention with reference now to fig8 a diagram illustrating an exemplary program function and process flow for providing a customized graphical user interface gui and automatic computer maintenance functions is depicted in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention to being the user is presented with a login interface step 802 allowing the user to provide a user id and password the term u201c agent u201d is used to describe software executing on the user 39 s computer which manages the gui the user login information is received by the agent step 804 and the user is identified and authenticated.