Patent ID: 7343488

Claim:
A data storage security system on a network, comprising: a data security system connected to the network including a first logical port, the data security system communicatively coupled with a data storage including a file, the file comprising a plurality of blocks; a source computer connected to the network, the source computer including an address and a second logical port, wherein the source computer is operative to issue a block level request to access one or more blocks of the file, the block level request including the address of the source computer, an identifier for the second logical port of the source computer, and an identifier for the first logical port of the data security system; a data storage security driver installed in the data security system, the data storage security driver operative to provide block level access control to the blocks of the file, including a policy for accessing the file, the policy including an address and an identifier for the second logical port of the source computer that is permitted to access the file and a direction of data flow between the data security system and the source computer, and wherein the data storage security driver is operative to approve the block level file access request by comparing the block level access request to the policy; and a data storage security manager separate from the data security system and operative to define the policy in the data storage security driver, wherein the data storage security manager is designed to refuse an instruction to modify the policy if the source of the instruction is outside the data storage security manager, wherein the data storage security manager is operative to communicate with the data storage security driver using a specific communication protocol, the specific communication protocol including one or more of a specified port and a specified routing path, and wherein the data storage security driver is operative to update the policy following a communication from the data storage security manager including the specific communication protocol.