Patent ID: 6895501

Claim:
A method for establishing a secure network connection between a web browser on a client and a service, said web browser having a virtual machine, said web browser having access to a first key, said client web browser and virtual machine being of the type that downloads and executes applets while protecting against at least some client resources from being updated based on said applet execution, said method comprising: establishing an insecure network connection with said client web browser; downloading, over said insecure connection, at least one digitally signed applet to the client web browser, said at least one applet including: (a) a second key, (b) code executable on the client virtual machine to cause the client to store the second key, and (c) code executable on the client virtual machine to use the stored second key to establish a secure network connection with said service; before the client virtual machine executes the digitally signed applet, verifying the digitally signed applet at the client using the first key; executing the downloaded applet code with the client virtual machine, thereby causing the client to store the second key corresponding to the service; and further executing said at least one applet to cause said at least one applet to use the stored second key to authenticate the service and establish the secure network connection with the service.