Patent ID: 7694190

Claim:
A method of affecting a trustworthy-measure associated with a source node in a distributed network, the method comprising: receiving an information file from the source node and a corresponding identifying code that is based on content of the information file when the information file is introduced to the network, and computing an associated code based on received content of the information file; comparing the associated code with the identifying code; transmitting an error report to an administrator node, the error report identifying the source node and the information file, when at least one of the following occur: the associated code does not correspond to the identifying code, and the content of the information file is abnormal; verifying the error report by the administrator node; and reducing the value of the trustworthy-measure associated with the source node in response to the administrator node verifying the error report, thereby providing the reduced-value trustworthy measure for evaluating subsequent use of the source node; wherein transmitting an error report includes transmitting an error report in response to the step of comparing indicating that a difference between the associated code and the identifying code is not caused by a communication error, and further including: repeating the receiving, computing, and comparing steps prior to transmitting the error report.