Method for controlling access to electronically provided services and system for implementing such method

A data processing system including means for controlling user access to data or services, the system including:

• means for storing said data or services in applets of an object oriented programming language in a form accessible only under the control of one or more access keys;
• smartcard means containing a key generator for generating, using a user ID entered by the user and key data contained in the smartcard means, a user key representing a user's authority levels for accessing data or services;
• and
• means, responsive to a user request for access to stored data or services, accompanied by the user key, for determining the access level of the requested data or services;
• and
• means for generating from said user key an access key for accessing the requested data or services if one of the user's authority levels as represented by the user key matches the determined access level.

An article of manufacture comprising a computer usable medium having computer readable program code means embodied therein for causing the control of user access to data or services via a computer system, the computer readable program code means in said article of manufacture comprising computer readable program code for performing the steps of:

• storing said data or services as encrypted applets of an object oriented programming language in a form accessible only under the control of one or more access keys said applets containing a security level encoded therein;
• providing a decryption algorithm for responding to a user key from a smartcard generator for generating from a user input identifying the user and key data contained in the smartcard, the user key representing a user's authority level or levels for accessing specific encrypted applets containing data or services;
• in response to a user request for access to stored data or services in an encrypted applet, determining the access level contained in that applet with the decryption algorithm and then interrogating the user key for that authority level,
• if the user's authority level as represented by the user key matches the determined access level, generating from said user key an access key for accessing said data or services.

A program storage device readable by machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform method steps for controlling user access to data or services via a computer system, said method steps comprising:

• storing said data or services as a hierarchy of applets of an object oriented programming language, the applets at each level of the hierarchy accessible only under the control of a different access key for each of the levels;
• providing users with a user key representing the user's authority level for accessing specific data or services;
• and
• in response to a user request for access to said stored data or services, accompanied by said user key, determining the access level of the applet of the requested data or services and, if the user's has an authority level, represented in the user key, that matches the determined access level, generating from said user key an access key for accessing said data or services wherein said user key is a hierarchical key string including data for generating a separate access key for each of a plurality of different access levels.