Patent ID: 8387109

Claim:
A method implemented in a computing device, the method comprising: identifying a current security policy for accessing a device of the computing device; identifying a secondary access control state vector for the device, the secondary access control state vector being a result of a previous application of a different security policy, the secondary access control state vector comprising multiple vector elements, each of the multiple vector elements comprising a secondary access control state assertion, and the secondary access control state assertions comprising at least two of: an indication that encryption is turned on for the device, an indication that encryption is turned off for the device, an indication that encryption of the device has been completed, an indication that encryption of the device is in process, an indication of particular users or groups of users that are permitted to access the device, and an indication of particular users or groups of users that are prohibited from accessing the device; and determining an access state for the device by applying the current security policy to the secondary access control state vector to generate the access state.