System and method for securely upgrading networked devices

A system (FIG. 1) for upgrading deployed networked devices (4,6,8,10,12,14,16). The devices are enabled with an installed agent (FIG. 2 left) that can identify and communicate with a server (22) running the upgrade program. When the appropriate conditions are met the server downloads the upgrade to the agent that then installs the upgrade onto the deployed device. The device is made capable of polling the server to see if an upgrade is available, or, in the alternative, the server can locate the device, query the state of the device and, when the appropriate predetermined conditions are met, download the upgrade to the device.