Patent ID: 7103774

Claim:
A method of establishing a secure communication in a digital communications network having a hierarchical arrangement of certificate servers, comprising the steps of: generating a first private/public key pair in a root certificate server; issuing a digital certificate for a public key portion of said first private/public key pair signed by said root certificate server and identified by a digital identifier associated with said root certificate server; generating additional private/public key pairs in subordinate entities and associating public key portions of said additional private/public key pairs with pseudonymic digital identifiers associated with said respective subordinate entities; and, issuing additional digital certificates binding said pseudonymic digital identifiers of said subordinate entities to the public key portion of their respective private/public key pairs from certificate servers that are in parental relationship to said subordinate entities, said additional digital certificates having a digital certificate identifier containing the pseudonymic digital identifier of the certified subordinate entity and the identifier of said certificate server issuing the additional digital certificate.