Patent ID: 8875307

Claim:
A method for managing network identities, the method comprising: generating, with a local computing system, a tree structure representing a network comprising a plurality of entities, the tree structure comprising a plurality of nodes, each node of the plurality of nodes representing an entity of the plurality of entities, at least one entity of the plurality of entities is represented by more than one node of the plurality of nodes; assigning a unique identifier to the each node, wherein assigning a unique identifier to the each node comprises: generating a number by combining an identification number of the entity associated with the each node and identification numbers of entities associated with nodes along a full path from a root node of the tree structure to the each node according to the position of every node along the full path; and encrypting the combined number to obtain the unique identifier; identifying the each node of the plurality of nodes as being a protected node or an unprotected node, wherein a mapping of each unique identifier to information about the entity associated with the each node associated with the unique identifier is maintained in memory; and transmitting, to a remote computing system, the tree structure, the unique identifiers for the protected nodes, and identity information of the entities for the unprotected nodes.