Patent ID: 8205077

Claim:
A management apparatus comprising: a memory to store owner information, dependence relationship information, and authorized user information associated with file information identifying a secret file; and a processor coupled to the memory; the processor operates to at least: store file access information including owner information indicating an owner of the targeted file, dependence relationship information, and authorized user information with file information, the file information being used to identify the secret file, the owner information being used to identify an owner of the secret file, the dependence relationship information indicating a dependence relationship between the secret file and another secret file, the authorized user information being used to identify the authorized user; first determine whether a source user of a browse request is registered as the authorized user of a browse request file by referring to the authorized user information stored while associated with file information of the browse request file that is associated with the browse request; specify one of a plurality of dependent files having a dependence relationship with the browse request file by referring to the dependence relationship information associated with the file information on the browse request file, when the source user is determined as the authorized user; second determine whether the owner information on the browse request file is matched with the owner information on the dependent file specified in the specifying; third determine whether the source user of the browse request is registered as the authorized user of the dependent file by referring to the authorized user information associated with the specified dependent file when the owner information on the browse request file is not matched with the owner information on the dependent file in the second determining; and transmit a browse permission response to the source user based on at least one of the following conditions, namely (1) when the source user is registered as the authorized user of the dependent file in the third determine, and (2) when the owner information on the browse request file is matched with the owner information on the dependent file in the second determine.