Patent ID: 8353051

Claim:
An image forming apparatus provided with an interface for an external recording medium, comprising: a plurality of software and hardware resources; an access control part configured to perform access control, for respective ones of the plurality of software and hardware resources of said image forming apparatus, based on access control information defining whether usage thereof by a user is allowed; and an internal recording medium, wherein: said access control part performs access control based on said access control information including a plurality of software or hardware policy information stored in said external recording medium, and when insertion of the external recording medium is detected, the access control part is configured to allow the user to input authentication information from an authentication page, and after the access control part determines a valid authentication, the access control part obtains the access control information from the external recording medium and expands the access control information in the internal recording medium, wherein: said access control information stored in said external recording medium defines whether the usage is allowed for a function module included in an application provided to the user or for one of the hardware resources of said image forming apparatus used by an application provided to the user; and said access control part determines whether the usage of the application is allowed, based on whether the usage of the function module is allowed or whether the usage of the hardware resource is allowed.