Patent ID: 7877563

Claim:
A removable digital data storage device, comprising: a programmable memory controller coupled to a data storage medium and in communication with a motion detector auxiliary system and a data destruction means coupled to the medium; the programmable memory controller to function as a device driver interface to a first computer; the programmable memory controller to choose only one of a high security level and at least one lower security level to a data operation request by the first computer on the data storage medium in response to a security parameter input associated with the data operation request; the programmable memory controller to determine access by the first computer to the data storage medium for the data operation by applying an access rule set of the correlated security level to a response to a query for a hardware access code, wherein an access rule set of the high security level is different from an access rule set of the at least one lower security level; and the programmable memory controller to instruct the data destruction means to render data residing on the data storage medium unreadable by applying a security path of the correlated security level to the response to the query for the hardware access code, wherein a security path of the high security level is different from a security path of the at least one lower security level, and wherein each of the high security level path and the at least one lower security level security path are different from each of the high security level rule set and the at least one lower security level access rule set; wherein the security parameter input associated with the data operation request comprises an elapsed time from a motion detected by the motion detector auxiliary system to a removal of the removable digital data storage device from the first computer, the programmable memory controller correlates the at least one lower security level with the data operation request in response to the elapsed time being within a specified threshold time period and correlates the high security level with the data operation request in response to the elapsed time exceeding the specified threshold time period.