Patent ID: 7865721

Claim:
A computer program product in a non-transitory computer readable medium for use in a data processing system for providing certificate status within a distributed computing environment comprising a set of Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP) responders, the computer program product storing computer program instructions which when executed by the data processing system perform a method comprising: configuring the OCSP responders to dynamically determine and designate one of the OSCP responders in the set as a master OCSP responder responsible for managing the set of OCSP responders; dispersing from the master OCSP responder to each OCSP responder in the set of OCSP responders a copy of a public key certificate, wherein an asymmetric cryptographic public key is stored within the public key certificate; setting an expiration period of the public key certificate to be equal to an earliest expiration date among public key certificates associated with OCSP responders in the set of OCSP responders; configuring each OCSP responder in the set of OCSP responders so that each OCSP responder can generate a group digital signature; receiving from an OCSP client an OCSP request message at an OCSP responder in the set of OCSP responders; and returning to the OCSP client an OCSP response message comprising the group digital signature.