Patent ID: 8601554

Claim:
A computer program product comprising one or more hardware storage devices having thereon computer-executable instructions that are structured such that, when executed by one or more processors of a computing system, cause an application to perform a method for authenticating identities within a mixed realm in which some identities are authenticated using direct authentication, and some identities are authenticated using federated authentication, the method comprising: an act of receiving a request for service from an identity within a mixed authentication realm; an act of determining whether the identity is a valid identity within the realm; and when the identity is determined to be valid and the identity is a direct authentication identity, an act of responding to the request for service with a direct authentication interface, the direct authentication interface enabling entry of a direct authentication credential for the identity; when the identity is determined to be valid and the identity is a federated authentication identity, an act of responding to the request for service with a federated authentication interface, the federated authentication interface enabling entry of a federated authentication credential for the identity; or when the identity is determined to be invalid: an act of pseudo-randomly choosing either the direct authentication interface or the federated authentication interface, including, for each of such requests for service from invalid identities: an act of encrypting the invalid identity; and an act of hashing the encryption of the invalid identity; and an act of determining whether to respond with the direct authentication interface or the federated authentication interface based on the hash result of the invalid identity; and an act of responding to the request for service with the pseudo-randomly chosen direct authentication interface or federated authentication interface, the pseudo-randomly chosen direct authentication interface or federated authentication interface enabling entry of a credential for the identity.