Patent ID: 7647497

Claim:
A storage medium having stored thereon an authentication program for permitting a user, who is attempting to log in to a storage system which includes a disk device for storing data and a processor which controls access to the disk device, to access a file recorded in the storage system, the authentication program, when executed by the processor, performs; a first step for receiving a user name and a password from the user; a second step for referring to a validity term corresponding to a pair of the user name and the password recorded in the storage system; and a third step for permitting access by the user to a file corresponding to the validity term based on a result of the second step, the first to third steps being executed by a processor, wherein the second step includes searching a file system, whose creation time is within the validity term, from among file systems recorded in the storage system, and wherein the third step includes permitting the user to access the file in the file system.