Patent ID: 7308707

Claim:
A method of communicating credentials, the method comprising: a first party communicating a composite credential across a distributed electronic network to a second party wherein the composite credential comprises a plurality of obfuscated credentials in which different obfuscation is used for at least two credentials in the composite credential; the second party de-obfuscating at least one credential; and the second party communicating to a third party at least one obfuscated credential from the composite credential, wherein the third party obtains a credential of the first party from the obfuscated credential without directly communicating with the first party, wherein the first party communicates to the second party an obfuscated composite credential comprising a first credential and a second credential in which the second credential is enveloped by the first credential, wherein the obfuscated composite credential is de-obfuscated by the second party thereby to obtain the first credential and a partly de-obfuscated second credential, which partly de-obfuscated second credential is communicated by the second party to a third party.