Patent ID: 7539856
Filing Date: 2009-05-26
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method of authenticating a source computing system from which a communication originates in a network, the method comprising: receiving at a destination computing system the communication that originates from the source computing system and travels through one or more intermediary computing systems using a particular protocol, wherein the destination computing system and at least one of the one or more intermediary computing systems belong to a protocol-based sphere of trust, wherein at least one of the intermediary computing systems belonging to the protocol-based sphere of trust receives the communication from an intermediary computing system outside the sphere of trust that it does not trust, wherein the protocol-based sphere of trust includes a plurality of computing systems that trust communications between each other that use the particular protocol, and wherein the source computing system does not belong to the sphere of trust; accessing a list of computing systems that belong to the sphere of trust that the destination computing system trusts to authenticate computing systems that do not belong to the sphere of trust; determining that at least one of the one or more intermediary computing systems through which the communication was received is on the list and that the at least one intermediary computing system on the list has validated the identity of the source computing system; and validating the identity of the source computing system that does not belong to the sphere of trust by relying on the at least one intermediary computing system on the list and without separately authenticating the source computing system even though the communication traveled through an intermediary computing system that was not trusted wherein a first intermediary computing system belonging to the protocol-based sphere of trust performs a two-tiered authentication process by performing a first-tier authentication of an immediately prior computing system; and