Patent ID: 8874769

Claim:
A group administrator peer node, comprising: a communications interface adapted to facilitate communication on a peer-to-peer overlay network; a storage medium including a private key and public key pair associated with the group administrator peer node; and a processing circuit coupled to the communications interface and the storage medium, the processing circuit adapted to: create a peer group, the group defining one or more peer nodes as members of the group; assign a peer-specific certificate to a group member peer node that is a member of the group, the peer-specific certificate adapted to authenticate membership in the group to other peer nodes in the peer-to-peer overlay network and including a group identity, an identity of the group member peer node, a public key associated with the group member peer node, an identity of an issuing apparatus and a signature by a private key of the issuing apparatus over one or more components of the peer-specific certificate; and obtain a group token adapted to authenticate to other peer nodes in the peer-to-peer overlay network that the group administrator peer node is authorized to issue the peer-specific group certificate to the group member peer node.