Patent ID: 8711381

Claim:
An image forming apparatus for executing a job request based on authority of an account, comprising: a certification ticket generation unit configured to generate a certification ticket corresponding to the job request and account information of the account instructing execution of the job request; a job request information generation unit configured to generate job request information of the job request; a certification ticket validity determination unit configured to determine whether the certification ticket is valid; a job request validity determination unit configured to determine whether the account has the authority to execute the job request by referring to authority information stored in a nonvolatile storage unit of the image forming apparatus based on acquired job request information corresponding to the certification ticket and the account information corresponding to the certification ticket; a job request control unit configured to execute the job request, the execution of the job request having been determined valid by the job request validity determination unit; a job request management unit that, when an instruction to execute the job request includes a prescribed execution start time to start execution of the job request, is configured to acquire the certification ticket from the storage unit at a prescribed time ahead of the prescribed execution start time determined based on the prescribed execution start time and a time to perform an acquisition of the certification ticket from the storage unit and to request to determine a validity of the certification ticket; and an encryption unit configured to select for encryption of the certification ticket one of plural encryption methods based on the prescribed execution start time to start execution of the job request.