Patent ID: 7814554

Claim:
A method of managing access requests from a plurality of computer software programs executing on a computer to read and/or write to a long-term storage device by using a hardware security controller logically connected between the computer and the long-term storage device, comprising the steps of: a) identifying a computer software program making a write request to write a specific file to a specific file directory address on the long-term storage device, and/or identifying a program directory address where the computer software program is stored, wherein an original version of the specific file may, or may not, already exist at the specific file directory address; b) using the identity of the computer software program and/or its program directory address to determine if the computer software program and/or program directory address has a predetermined association with said specific file and/or the specific file directory address; c) redirecting said write request, if and only if, said predetermined association does not exist between said computer software program and/or program directory address and said specific file and/or specific file directory address, wherein the specific file is written as an alias file that is physically separate from the original version of the specific file stored at the specific file directory address, and d) writing said specific file at said specific file directory address, if and only if, said predetermined association does exist between said computer software program and/or program director address and said specific file and/or specific file directory address, wherein steps c) and d) are interchangeable in execution order.