Controlling access to information in a distributed data processing system.
The distributed data processing system has a server, which stores the
information and also further comprises a logging tool for creating a log
file. The distributed data processing system also has a client computer
comprising an application program for controlling a software agent. When
the software agent requests information from the server, a process to
identify the software agent is invoked. In response to the
identification, all the requests from the identified software agent are
stored in the log file and this data in the log file is analyzed. The
data is also utilized in the process of monitoring the behavior of the
identified software agent. In response to the monitoring process, at
least one of a plurality of pre-defined rules is invoked, in order to
control the behavior of the identified software agent.