Patent ID: 6571334
Filing Date: 2003-05-27
Classification: G06Q,H04L

Abstract:
A method of authenticating a dispatch and contents of the dispatch transmitted from a sender to a recipient, comprising the steps of:sending content data representative of the contents of the dispatch, and, a destination of the dispatch associated with said recipient, to an authenticator functioning as a non-interested third party with respect to the sender and the recipient, to be forwarded to said destination; receiving a representation of authentication data that has been generated by said authenticator, said authentication data comprising a representation of the following set A of information elements: a1â€”comprising said content data, and dispatch record data elements a2, . . . , an which includes at least an indicia a2 relating to a time of the dispatch which is provided in a manner resistant to or indicative of tampering by either of the sender and the recipient, and an indicia a3 relating to said destination of the dispatch, wherein at least part of said authentication data is secured against tampering of the sender and the recipient, and wherein said authentication data includes a set B comprising one or more information elements b1, . . . ,bm generated by respectively applying functions F1, . . . ,Fm to subsets S1, . . . ,Sm comprising selected portions of said set A, where said functions F1, . . . ,Fm can be different from one another and said subsets S1, . . . ,Sm can be different from one another, and wherein said authentication data does not comprise an encrypted representation of said content data and said dispatch record data which is encrypted with a secret key, either symmetric or asymmetric, associated with said recipient.