1. A computer-implemented method for accessing a resource in a computer system comprising an operating system, comprising: receiving a request to access the resource from an application; determining if the application is running in a derived user account (DUA) context; if the application is not running in a DUA context, creating a DUA and directing the application to run in the context of the DUA, wherein creating the DUA comprises applying a derivation transformation to an original user account (OUA) state to generate a corresponding DUA state of the DUA, wherein the OUA state corresponds to an OUA in which the application is currently running; and granting the application access to the resource.