Patent ID: 7010681

Claim:
A method of using structured documents to specify selective encryption requirements for document content to be transmitted from a server to a client, comprising steps of: identifying one or more security-sensitive document content sections in each of a plurality of structured documents encoded in a markup language by delimiting each of the security-sensitive sections in each of the structured documents using markup language tag syntax, wherein the markup language tag syntax is encoded in the markup language and indicates a security level of the delimited security-sensitive section; receiving, at the server from a requester located at the client, a request for a particular one of the structured documents; determining a maximum security level for which the requester is authorized; filtering out, from the requested document, all of the identified security-sensitive sections for which the indicated security level is higher than the determined maximum security level for which the requester is authorized, thereby creating a filtered document; and if the filtered document is not empty, performing the steps of: determining a most-restrictive one of the security levels indicated by the markup language tag syntax delimiting any security-sensitive sections that remain in the filtered document; identifying, from one or more ciphers that are available to the server for encryption, any ciphers which are capable of providing the determined most-restrictive security level; and if any ciphers were identified, encrypting the filtered document using one of the identified ciphers and transmitting the encrypted filtered document to the requester at the client.