Patent ID: 6947556

Claim:
A system for controlling access to digital data of a file, the system comprising: a file server configured to store an encrypted file and a file header corresponding to the digital data of the file and containing an encryption key encrypted with both a personal key of an owner of the file and a control key; a personal key server configured to receive a header associated with a file, the file header containing an encryption key encrypted with a personal key and encrypt the encrypted encryption key with a control key to provide the file header containing an encryption key encrypted with both a personal key and a control key; and a personal key client configured to generate the encryption key, encrypt the digital data of the file with the encryption key, generate the personal key from a password associated with the file, encrypt the encryption key with the personal key, incorporate the encrypted encryption key in a file header associated with the file and provide the file header with the encryption key encrypted with the personal key to the personal key server, receive the file header from the personal key server and provide the file header received from the personal key server to the file server.