Enforcement mitigations for a protected file

Aspects of the present invention provide the ability to enforce access methods on data based upon a policy or policies identified within the metadata of a file. The data is self-protected by including or being wrapped with one or more policy/rule identifiers that act as a form of body armor to the data when in transit or in different situations. In embodiments, access is only granted upon successful authentication and compliance with the identified policy or policies. In embodiments, depending upon the conditions and policies, varying level access may be granted. In embodiments, depending upon the conditions and policies, the system may take one or more mitigations or remedial access levels, such as containerizing, sandboxing, granting limited access, or erasing the data.