Patent ID: 8555078

Claim:
A system, comprising: a client computer comprising one or more processors; the client computer further comprising a memory coupled to one or more processors, wherein the memory stores program instructions executable by the one or more processors to implement a security component associated with a network-enabled application, wherein said security component is configured to: receive authentication policy information at runtime on the client computer, the authentication policy information received from a remote computer of a relying party, the authentication policy information specifying that an assertion token is to be signed by the client computer prior to the client computer forwarding that assertion token to the relying party; send authentication credentials from the client computer to a remote computer of an assertion provider to authenticate a user of the client computer to the relying party; receive an assertion token from a remote computer of the assertion provider, wherein the assertion token indicates the user of the client computer has been authenticated; sign the assertion token on the client computer as specified in the authentication policy information received at runtime; forward the signed assertion token from the client computer to a remote computer of the relying party; determine whether the relying party is reputable; enable display of an indication associated with whether the relying party is reputable; and enable display of a region embedded within a user interface associated with the client computer, the user interface configured to display an image associated with the relying party, wherein an appearance associated with said embedded region is customizable for each relying party of a plurality of relying parties.