A standard for security management in a client server computer system is disclosed. In one aspect, the present invention specifies a security contract between an application server and a resource adapter, supporting access to an enterprise information system by passing a connection request from the resource adapter to the application server, propagating a a security context from the application server to the resource adapter. The security contract includes a subject class representing a grouping of related information for a single entity, and security-related attributes of the subject class.