Patent ID: 7346930

Claim:
A method for bridging requests for access to resources between requestors in a distributed network and an authenticator servicing the distributed network: initiating a request for access to a resource through an application on a requestor in accordance with a request from a user, wherein the requestor has an IP address; intercepting the request for access to the resource; identifying the IP address of the requestor; verifying the requestor is allowed to initiate requests based on the IP address; identifying a type of the request for access to the resource as one of a plurality of types of requests; identifying the application initiating the request for access to the resource; verifying the application is an application that the requestor is allowed to use; verifying the type of the request is a type of request that the application has permission to initiate; and forwarding the request for access to the resource to the authenticator based on successfully verifying the requestor, verifying the application, and verifying the type of the request, wherein the authenticator verifies the identity of the user and authorizes the request for access to the resource based on successfully verifying the identity of the user.