Patent ID: 8863227

Claim:
A network device in a Content Oriented Network (CON), wherein the network device comprises: a receiver configured to receive, from a publisher, a plain text content item signed by a publisher private key and an associated security information, wherein the security information comprises a group identifier (ID) that uniquely identifies a group of subscribers that is authorized to access the content item; a processor coupled to the receiver and configured to implement procedures to enforce security policies defined by the security information, wherein the procedures comprise: encrypting the plain text content item at the network device using the group ID as an encryption key to produce an encrypted content item; attempting to decrypt the content item in response to a request from a subscriber by employing a subscriber group ID as a decryption key; granting the subscriber access to the content item when the subscriber group ID successfully decrypts the content item; and verifying the content item on behalf of the subscriber by employing a publisher public key; a storage unit coupled to the processor and configured to cache the encrypted content item and the associated security information; and a transmitter coupled to the processor and configured to: send the content item from the storage unit to the subscriber when the subscriber is granted access; and distribute the group ID among a plurality of content routers in the CON to support distributed access to the encrypted content item.