Patent ID: 7353535
Filing Date: 2008-04-01
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A method for use in an environment comprising a computing system capable of accessing an electronic message the electronic message including one or more assertions in the form of an identification of an authority as well as one or more statements made by the authority, the method for determining whether or not to trust at least one of the statements made by the authority in the electronic message, wherein trusting statements comprises accepting the statements as true, even if the electronic message contains a trust policy that is different than a trust policy maintained by the computing system independent of the electronic message, the method comprising the following: an act of accessing the electronic message, the electronic message further including a first trust policy in the form of an identification of at least a first authority type that includes the identified authority and that specifies that statements of a first set of one or more statement types made by an authority of the first authority type are to be trusted; an act of comparing the first trust policy to a second trust policy that is accessible by the computing system independent of the accessed electronic message, the second trust policy including an identification of at least a second authority type that includes the identified authority and that specifies that statements of a second set of one or more statement types made by an authority of the second authority type are to be trusted; an act of identifying which of the first and second trust policies is more restrictive with respect to at least one statement of the one or more statements made by the authority in the electronic message; and an act of using the identified more restrictive trust policy to determine whether or not to trust the at least one statement, wherein the more restrictive trust policy is the trust policy between the first trust policy and the second trust policy that would result in more statements not being trusted.