METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR AUTHENTICATING AND AUDITING ACCESS BY A USER TO NON-NATIVELY SECURED APPLICATIONS

A method for authenticating access by a user to non-natively secured applications intended for use in cooperation with an operating system having a native security system. A profile is assigned to the user which defines the user's access rights to the non-natively secured applications. At least one datastore is provided in communication with the operating system for storing the user's profile relating to each of the non-natively secured applications, including an access control list defining authorized users and a set of pooled accounts authenticated for access to the respective non-natively secured application. The user's profile is compared with the access control list for the selected non-natively secured application to determine if a user is valid for the request. If the user is valid for the request, an available account is assigned to the user as the user's virtual identity, account data is forwarded to a launcher application, and a audit record is written to map the user to the assigned account and thus the non-natively secured application.