Patent ID: 7660798

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of accessing a secured portable electronic document, the method comprising: using a verification server for granting access to a secured portable electronic document; retrieving additional information corresponding to the secured portable electronic document, from the secured portable electronic document, in response to a request to access the secured portable electronic document, wherein: the additional information includes an address corresponding to the verification server, the additional information includes a designation of whether the verification server is behind a firewall, and the additional information specifies a security mode selected from a group comprising (i) behind the firewall and (ii) outside the firewall; granting access to the secured portable electronic document based at least in part on validation information stored on the verification server identified by the address in the additional information when the verification server is accessible, wherein: the validation information stored on the verification server includes a private key corresponding to a public key included in the additional information from the secured portable electronic document, and the granting access to the secured portable electronic document based at least in part on the validation information stored on the verification server comprises allowing access only to specified users behind the firewall, when the security mode is behind the firewall; and granting access to the secured portable electronic document based at least in part on validation information associated with a user submitting the access request when the verification server is not accessible, wherein: the validation information associated with the user includes one or more of a user identifier and a password that are embedded in the secured portable electronic document, and the granting access to the secured portable electronic document based at least in part on validation information associated with a user comprises allowing access to users upon verification of validation information associated with the user, when the security mode is outside the firewall.