Patent ID: 7366724

Claim:
An apparatus for authorizing users of network portals to access a project hosted by a secure server, comprising: an owning portal including an owning portal (OP) policy manager, an OP repository, and an authorization table, the OP policy manager for determining whether a user is authorized to communicate with the secure server, the OP repository for comparing authentication information to stored information, and the authorization table for storing a plurality of user identifiers, each representing a user of the owning portal, and for storing for each of the user identifiers an access privilege to the project; wherein the owning portal is configured for assigning a proxy user identifier to a guest portal, and for associating a role with the proxy user identifier that conveys certain access privileges to the project, the role including an access level and an activity security; and wherein the authorization table stores a portal identifier, role, and proxy user identifier representing the guest portal and a guest access privilege to the project for users of the guest portal; a secure server including a secure server policy manager for receiving from the owning portal a first request for access to the project, the first request comprising a first user identifier representing a user of the owning portal, wherein the secure server policy manager grants to the user of the owning portal access to the project according to the access privilege stored in the authorization table for the first user identifier; wherein the secure server policy manager receives from the guest portal a second request for access to the project, the second request comprising a second user identifier representing a user of the guest portal and the portal identifier representing the guest portal, wherein the secure server policy manager grants to the user of the guest portal access to the project according to the guest access privilege stored in the authorization table for the proxy user identifier, and wherein the first request comprises a portal identifier representing the owning portal, wherein the apparatus further comprises a portal repository to receive the first request, and to authenticate the owning portal using the portal identifier in the first request; and a user repository to authenticate the user of the owning portal based on the first user identifier and a security credential associated with the user of the owning portal.