Patent ID: 7908476

Claim:
A computer implemented method for using a virtual file system to encrypt files, the computer implemented method comprising: registering a plurality of file systems on a data processing system with the virtual file system, wherein the virtual file system is enabled to encrypt files without intervention from any file system in the plurality of file systems; associating an encrypted map file with each of the plurality of file systems registered with the virtual file system; de-encrypting, by a processing unit of the virtual file system, the encrypted map file to form a map file, wherein the encrypted map file may only be de-encrypted by the virtual file system; responsive to de-encrypting the encrypted map file, identifying whether a file on a given file system is an encrypted file using the map file associated with the given file system, wherein the map file includes an encryption key used to encrypt the file and an encryption algorithm used to encrypt the file; responsive to identifying the file as an encrypted file, encrypting, by the virtual file system, all data written to the file in accordance with encryption specifications in the map file; and selectively encrypting individual files and directories on the data processing system based on a plurality of map files associated with the plurality of files systems, wherein some files and directories in the plurality of file systems are encrypted, and wherein other files and directories in the plurality of file systems are not encrypted.