Patent ID: 7383439

Claim:
Computer readable media, including executable instructions to: send an enrollment message with a public key from a client machine; supply, from a secure email support machine, a registration response; confirm said registration response at said client machine; send, in response to said enrollment message, an authentication email from said secure email support machine to an email server, wherein said authentication email includes user information and a cookie encrypted with said public key; identify at said client machine said authentication email received from said email server; decrypt, within said client machine using a private key corresponding to said public key, authentication information within said authentication email to yield said user information and said cookie; send to said secure email support machine said cookie; and process, at said secure email support machine, said cookie to authenticate said client and thereafter facilitate the exchange of secure email, said secure email support machine participating in at least a portion of the process of encrypting or decrypting email messages associated with said client.