United States Patent Application | 20030163686 |
Kind Code | A1 |
Ward, Jean Renard; et al. | August 28, 2003 |
A system and method facilitates reliance among members of a community that communicates electronically. Each member has a private credential for use in a computing environment. Each member obtains the credential in accordance with a credential-issuance process. The process need not include a certification authority. Credentials may be generated directly by the members themselves. They system includes a database that contains at least one credential entry for each member . The system also includes a management process with authority to sanction (e.g., approve) reliance by the community on a member's credential. Such sanction authority is separate from the credential-issuance process. The system also includes a rule set defining a scope of reliance the community may make on a member's credential.
Inventors: | Ward, Jean Renard; (Arlington, MA) ; Yung, Marcel Mordechay; (New York, NY) ; Stewart, Robert James; (Sumter, RI) |
Correspondence Name and Address: |
Stuart T. F. Huang Steptoe & Johnson LLP 1330 Connecticut Avenue, NW Washington DC 20036 US |
Serial No.: | 212676 |
Series Code: | 10 |
Filed: | August 6, 2002 |
U.S. Current Class: | 713/156 |
U.S. Class at Publication: | 713/156 |
Intern'l Class: | H04L 009/00 |