Patent ID: 7441263

Claim:
A system for providing user authentication to a first account provided by a first server via a communication medium, comprising: client side components; a user management component coupled to said client side components via the communication medium; and server side components coupled to said user management component via the communication medium, wherein said client side components include an authentication control component that manages a process of capturing a user-determined policy for the first account and user credentials, thereby allowing a user to define a level of protection by selecting one or more identification devices from a list of at least two identification devices that are used to execute the policy for accessing the first account and wherein said client side components communicate the result of capturing said user-determined policy and said user credentials to said user management component, wherein said user management component stores said user-determined policy and said user credentials in a centralized location and organizes said user-determined policy and said user credentials such that said user credentials can be reused for user authentication to a second account provided by a second server; wherein said user-determined policy for the first account and a second user-determined policy for said second account utilize different sets of devices; and wherein said server side components include an authentication server, and wherein said user management component indicates to said authentication server to use said user-determined policy for user authentication to the first account.