Patent ID: 7174565

Claim:
A computer program product for use in a computer network interconnecting a client system, a proxy system, and a server system, wherein data exchanged over the computer network is subject to being compromised, the computer program product comprising: one or more computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions, that when executed, implement a method of negotiating, through the proxy system, a secure end-to-end connection between the client system and the server system, wherein the client system securely authenticates to the proxy system, and wherein the method comprises: negotiating a secure client-proxy connection between the client and proxy systems, in which at least the client is authenticated to the proxy system; downgrading the secure client-proxy connection to an insecure client-proxy connection after authenticating the client; only after authenticating the client and after downgrading the secure client-proxy connection, negotiating a secure end-to-end connection between the client and the server system using the secure client-proxy connection, such that the secure connection between the client and the proxy systems is downgraded to an insecure client-proxy connection prior to establishing the secure end-to-end connection between the client and server systems, and such that the secure end-to-end connection is encapsulated within the insecure client-proxy connection, and such that the proxy server does not encrypt or decrypt any data sent between the client and the server.