Patent ID: 7540018

Claim:
A computer network having one or more servers storing data files provided by one or more clients comprising: means for receiving a request for data at a network server from a first client computer system by a requestor; means for verifying whether an encryption key associated with the requestor is good and if verification fails, requesting user input from the requestor and generating an encryption key based at least in part on the user input and based at least in part on an identification code associated with the first client computer system; means for checking a file attribute of the requested data using the network server to determine whether the requested data is encrypted with an encryption key; means for automatically obtaining from the client computer system the encryption key corresponding to the requestor when the requested data is not encrypted; when the requested data is encrypted, means for checking the file attribute of the requested data using the network server to determine the encryption key used to encrypt the requested data; means for comparing the encryption key used to encrypt the requested data with the encryption key associated with the requestor to determine whether the requestor is the owner of the encryption key used to encrypt the data; means for sending the encrypted data to the first client computer system when the data is encrypted and the requestor is the owner of the encryption key; and if the requested data was encrypted with the requestor's encryption key, means for automatically decrypting the requested data without user intervention.