Patent ID: 7085925

Claim:
A method for evaluating a set of credentials comprising at least one group credential in response to a request to access a resource, comprising: ascertaining at least one first trust rating explicitly included within at least one of said credentials within said set of credentials including said group credential, wherein each of said first trust ratings represents a level of confidence in information being certified within the respective credential; in the event said set of credentials comprises a plurality of certification paths having at least one credential in each of said paths, determining, for each certification path of said plurality of certification paths, a respective third trust rating equal to a lowest first trust rating in the credentials of the respective certification path; in the event said set of credentials does not comprise a plurality of certification paths, setting a second trust rating for said set of credentials to a lowest first trust rating of the at least one first trust ratings; in the event said set of credentials comprises a plurality of certification paths, setting the second trust rating for said set of credentials to a highest third trust rating of said third trust ratings; and granting access to the resource in the event said second trust rating satisfies predetermined criteria.