A method for controlling access to a process to be executed on a data processing system is provided. An interface is provided for coupling a security device to the data processing system. The security device is a separate hardware device from the data processing system. User input of an identifier for accessing the security device is received, the identifier is verified, and the security device is accessed, in response to the identifier being verified, to obtain authentication data for the process to be executed on the data processing system. The authentication data is injected into a login process associated with the process to be executed to automatically authenticate a user to the process to be executed. The security device uses private-public key authentication to authenticate the user to the process to be executed without the user being aware that private-public key authentication is being performed.