Document security system and method

摘要

A server (A) has a database (12A) in which a number of documents are stored. The server (A) is accessible by many distant user terminals (20A..20N), for example via the internet. The documents may be in HTML form for distribution through the World Wide Web. Each document is assigned a security level and different documents may have different security levels on a document by document basis. The database (12A) includes a table containing a user name, a password and a security level indicator. When a particular document is requested by a user terminal (20A) the security level of the user is determined from the table and access to the document is allowed only if the security level of the requesting user is as least as high as the security level of the requested document.