The present invention relates to a storage device for supporting an iSCSI
protocol as an interface with host devices, wherein, in realizing an
authentication function of access control following the iSCSI protocol,
presence and absence of an authentication of the host device connected
under the same port can coexist. In the storage device that can be
connected to a plurality of host devices, access information from the
host devices is received through the iSCSI port, and the host devices are
identified based on the access information and refers to an
authentication control table memorized in a shared memory and associating
an iSCSI name for specifying the host device in the unit of iSCSI port,
with authentication information of the host device (necessity of
authentication, user ID/password), to determine the necessity of the
authentication to the iSCSI port from the host device. If the
authentication is necessary from a result of the determination, the
authentication is carried out and accessibility to a memory device is
controlled based on the result of the authentication.