Patent ID: 8681992

Claim:
A method of monitoring and controlling access to an electronic content, comprising: creating, by an owner server, a group comprising generating a group public key PK G and a group secret key SK G ; adding, by the owner server, a member to the group, comprising generating a first share SK G1 from the group secret key SK G and a public key of the member, and a second share SK G2 from the group secret key SK G and a public key of a mediator; and providing, by the owner server, the first share SK G1 to a member server of the member and the second shares SK G2 to a mediator server of the mediator; further comprising: a user publishing an electronic content for the group, comprising the user encrypting the electronic content to the group public key PK G , wherein the electronic content includes a header and a payload; obtaining, by the member, the encrypted electronic content; requesting, by the member, mediation by the mediator, comprising the member dispatching the header of the encrypted electronic content to the mediator; determining, by the mediator, whether the member is eligible to decrypt the electronic content, if eligible, the mediator responding to the request for mediation with a member accessible header, wherein the member accessible header includes the header after application of SK G2 ; obtaining, by the member, a secret based on SK G1 and the member accessible header; decrypting, by the member, the payload of the electronic content using the secret.