Patent ID: 8627084

Claim:
A method for securely conveying a message over a communications network from a sender to a recipient, wherein the recipient has an identity-based-encryption public key and an identity-based-encryption private key for use in encryption and decryption, wherein the message is encrypted using the identity-based-encryption public key of the recipient, wherein forwarding notification information is added to the encrypted message in the form of instructions for the recipient that direct the recipient to forward the encrypted message for decryption, wherein the encrypted message with the added forwarding notification is provided to the recipient, comprising: at a server, creating an interactive message prompt formed from a universal resource locator in response to receiving the forwarded encrypted message; using the server to obtain credentials from the recipient in response to the recipient clicking on the universal resource locator; with a decryption engine on the server, using the recipient's credentials to obtain a copy of the recipient's identity-based-encryption private key; and with the decryption engine on the server, decrypting the encrypted message using the copy of the recipient's identity-based-encryption private key to produce a decrypted version of the message, wherein the recipient is provided with access to the decrypted version of the message.