Device controller and method of enforcing time-based sector level security

A method of enforcing sector-based security by a device controller interfaced between an electronic processing device and a sector-based data storage device having a plurality of sectors, with the device controller having at least one processor communicatively connected to a clock and at least one computer memory having stored therein a control list including a security feature entry respectively including a target sector range, time data associated with the target sector range and representing a time window, and at least one security response associated with the target sector range, the target sector range being a subset of the plurality of sectors, and an event monitor, communicatively connected to the at least one processor and another clock, and including another processor and a data store containing at least one security alarm event associated with the target sector range, said method, comprising:

• receiving, by the at least one processor, an alarm interrupt from the event monitor after the other processor determines the security alarm event occurs based on at least one of another clock time generated by the other clock and environmental data provided by an environmental sensor communicatively connected to the event monitor;
• and
• upon receipt of the alarm interrupt, executing by the at least one processor the at least one security response of the security feature associated with the target sector range when the at least one processor determines based, at least in part, on interrogation of the control list and a clock time generated by the clock, the time data of the security feature entry conflicts with the clock time when the clock time is beyond the time window and a data keep alive check flag is true.