Patent ID: 7822986

Claim:
A method for allowing a first computing device to be authenticated by at least a second computing device, the method comprising: receiving, by a log-on software program operated by the first computing device, a personal identifier associated with a user, said personal identifier enabling checking of the identity of said user and accessing of a private signature key of said user; and in response, producing by said log-on software program: a session identifier data Id, a set of one or more private numbers Q 1 , Q 2 , . . . , Q m and respective public numbers G 1 , G 2 , . . . , G m , each pair of numbers (Q i , G i ) verifying either the equation G i ·Q i v ≡ — 1 mod n or the equation G i ≡_Q i v mod n, wherein m is an integer greater than or equal to 1, i is an integer between 1 and m, and wherein v is a public exponent, and wherein n is a public module equal to the product off private prime factors designated by p 1 , . . . , p f , at least two of these prime factors being different from each other, wherein f is an integer greater than 1, said public module n being small relative to the private signature key, and a certificate, signed using said private signature key, session identifier data Id and said public module n.