Patent ID: 8516549

Claim:
A computer program product, comprising a non-transitory computer usable medium having a computer readable program code embodied therein, the computer readable program code adapted to be executed to implement a method, the method comprising: storing policy data for a plurality of entities, including: storing first policy data of a first one of the network entities, the first one of the network entities including a user and the first policy data being specific to the user and including a password requirement for the user; storing second policy data for a second one of the network entities, the second one of the network entities including a user role and the second policy data including at least one user requirement, and storing third policy data of a third one of the network entities, the third one of the network entities including an application and the third policy data used for controlling access to the application; receiving a message from the user requesting access to the application; in response to the receipt of the message, identifying the first policy data of the user, the second policy data of the role, and the third policy data of the application; merging the first policy data, the second policy data, and the third policy data to produce a combined policy; evaluating the combined policy with respect to the received message to determine whether the message is associated with a policy violation; allowing the user to access the application when the determination is that the message is not associated with the policy violation; and denying the user access to the application when the determination is that the message is associated with the policy violation.