Patent ID: 7814562

Claim:
An information processing apparatus which is equipped with plural storage devices each storing security function information indicating at least a security level of the respective storage device, said apparatus comprising: a data move request receiving unit adapted to receive a request to move data from a source storage device to a destination storage device among the plural storage devices; a security function information comparison unit adapted to, upon the data move request unit receiving the data move request, compare the security level of the source storage device with the security level of the destination storage device, based on the security function information; a data move control unit adapted to inhibit the data move if the security level of the source storage device is higher than the security level of the destination storage device and allow the data move, wherein the data move control unit copies the data from the source storage device to the destination storage device and erases the data copied to the destination storage device from the source storage device, if the security level of the source storage device matches that of the destination storage device, wherein the security function information includes user authentication information and data area access right information, and wherein when the user authentication information included in the security function information stored in the source storage device indicates that a user authentication function exists but the user authentication information included in the security function information stored in the destination storage device does not indicate that the user authentication function exists, said security function information comparison unit judges that the security function information stored in the source storage device does not conform to the security function information stored in the destination storage device.