Patent ID: 8600895

Claim:
A method of controlling access to a plurality of records stored within a plurality of automated external databases, each record having an associated set of access rules (“ASAR”), a location identifier (“LI”), and a content identifier (“CI”) maintained in an automated centralized index (“ACI”), comprising: receiving a request, communicated from a requestor to a centralized automated security processor (“GASP”), the request containing a specified CI (“SCI”); authenticating the requestor; querying the ACI to find entries corresponding to the SCI; for each found entry, applying the ASAR corresponding to the LI to determine if the record stored in a respective automated external database (“AXD”) of the plurality of automated external databases corresponding to the LI is accessible; for each accessible record (“AR”), automatically communicating from the GASP to the AXD storing the AR information sufficient to determine whether the AR is releasable by the AXD storing the AR by applying a set of native access rules (“NAR”) maintained by the AXD storing the AR; logically associating the releasable ARs into a linked set of releasable ARs; and communicating the linked set of releasable ARs to the requestor.