US Patent 7409390 Access control system and methods

The present invention provides access control methods, apparatus and systems that employ an access control rule and that does not distinguish between data and the access control rule, so that the same flexible access control that is available for the data can also be provided for the access control rule. In an example embodiment, an access control system comprises: an access controller for, in accordance with the access request, employing an access control rule defining an access right for the object to determine whether or not access to the object should be permitted; and an object storage unit for storing a set of access control rules as objects equivalent to common data objects, wherein, upon the receipt of a request to access an access control rule, the access controller determines whether or not access to the access control rule should be permitted.