Patent ID: 7559084

Claim:
An authentication information processing method comprising: acquiring apparatus information of a user apparatus requesting a log-in; determining a log-in procedure to be applied to the user apparatus on the basis of the apparatus information; accepting a log-in operation from the user apparatus; judging, based on the determined log-in procedure and on the accepted log-in operation, whether the log-in from the user apparatus is permitted or not; storing a last log-in time from the user apparatus with the last log-in time related to the apparatus information; storing security level with the last log-in date related to the security level; storing an accumulated log-in count from the user apparatus with the log-in count related to the apparatus information; and determining a security level for the user apparatus by referring to at least an accumulated log-in count, wherein in determining the log-in procedure, the log-in procedure is determined by raising the security level when a period longer than a predetermined period has elapsed since the last log-in time, wherein in determining the log-in procedure, the log-in procedure is determined by lowering the security level when a number of days since the last log-in date is smaller than a predetermined small number of days, wherein in determining the log-in procedure, the log-in procedure is determined in accordance with the accumulated log-in count and the security level, and the security level is lowered when formal log-in procedure is repeated.