Restricting access to hardware for which a driver is installed on a computer

1. A method for restricting wireless activity by user accounts in a computer having a wireless hardware communication interface, the method comprising:

running a system-account process designed to communicate via the wireless hardware communication interface solely with a particular group of one or more wireless devices, the system-account process configured to receive inter-process commands from any user-account process;

applying an access control list (ACL) that is configured to permit only administrative accounts and system accounts to have direct access to a software element installed on the computer, thus preventing any user-account process from directly accessing the software element, where access to the software element is essential to support communication via the wireless hardware communication interface; and

running a user-account process that sends commands via inter-process communication to the system-account process, wherein providing the user-account process with indirect access to the software element to support communications via the wireless hardware communication interface solely with the particular group of one or more wireless devices occurs responsive to the running a system-account process, the applying an access control list, and the running a user-account process.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the software element comprises a radio driver for a radio in the wireless hardware communication interface.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the software element comprises a radio frequency communication module that is designed to emulate in the computer a serial port for use in wireless communications via the wireless hardware communication interface.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein one of the particular group of one or more wireless devices is a smart card reader and the system-account process is designed to communicate with the smart card reader to access a smart card coupled to the smart card reader.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

disabling an authentication agent that provides an alert when a device is attempting to connect to the computer using the wireless hardware communications interface.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

deleting one or more encryption keys stored in a cache of the computer, wherein the one or more encryption keys were previously used to encrypt wireless communications conducted via the wireless hardware communication interface.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

programmatically disabling a serial port defined in the computer for wireless communications via the wireless hardware communication interface.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the wireless hardware communication interface is compatible with a wireless personal area network protocol.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the wireless personal area network protocol comprises a Bluetooth® protocol.

10. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:

preventing access by any user-account process to library function modules for the protocol.

11. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:

preventing access by any user-account process to an application programming interface for the protocol.

12. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:

preventing access by any user-account process to a file transfer application for the protocol.

13. A computer comprising:

a processor;

a wireless hardware communication interface; and

a memory coupled to the processor, the memory storing:

an operating system for the computer,

a software element access to which is essential to support communication via the wireless hardware communication interface,

an access control list that is configured to permit only administrative accounts and system accounts to have direct access to the software element, so that when the access control list is applied by the operating system, any user-account process is prevented from directly accessing the software element,

an application which when executed by the processor runs a system-account process designed to communicate via the wireless hardware communication interface solely with a particular group of one or more wireless devices, the system-account process configured to receive inter-process commands from any user-account process, and

an application which when executed by the processor runs a user-account process that sends commands via inter-process communication to the system-account process, wherein the user-account process gains indirect access to the software element to support communications via the wireless hardware communication interface solely with the particular group of one or more wireless devices responsive to execution of the system-account process, application of the access control list, and running of the user-account process.

14. The computer of claim 13 , wherein the software element comprises a radio driver for a radio in the wireless hardware communication interface.

15. The computer of claim 13 , wherein the software element comprises a radio frequency communication module that is designed to emulate in the computer a serial port for use in wireless communications via the wireless hardware communication interface.

16. The computer of claim 13 , wherein one of the particular group of one or more wireless devices is a smart card reader and the system-account process is designed to communicate with the smart card reader to access a smart card coupled to the smart card reader.

17. The computer of claim 13 , wherein the wireless hardware communication interface is compatible with a wireless personal area network protocol.

18. The computer of claim 17 , wherein the wireless personal area network protocol comprises a Bluetooth® protocol.

19. The method of claim 1 , wherein the wireless hardware communication interface is compatible with a short-range wireless communication protocol.

20. The computer of claim 13 , wherein the wireless hardware communication interface is compatible with a short-range wireless communication protocol.