Patent ID: 8301889

Claim:
A method for securely conveying a message over a communications network from a sender to a recipient, wherein the recipient has an identity-based-encryption public key and an identity-based-encryption private key for use in encryption and decryption, comprising: with computing equipment at the sender, encrypting the message for the recipient using the identity-based-encryption public key of the recipient; adding forwarding notification information to the encrypted message in the form of instructions for the recipient that direct the recipient to forward the encrypted message for decryption, wherein the encrypted message with the added forwarding notification information is provided to the recipient; providing the recipient with an interactive message access prompt formed from a universal resource locator to which the recipient can respond by clicking on the universal resource locator to begin obtaining access to a decrypted version of the message; using a server to obtain credentials from the recipient when the recipient responds to the interactive message access prompt by clicking on the universal resource locator; with a decryption engine on the server, using the recipient's credentials to obtain a copy of the recipient's identity-based-encryption private key; with the decryption engine on the server, decrypting the encrypted message using the copy of the recipient's identity-based-encryption private key to produce a decrypted version of the message; and with the server, providing the recipient with access to the decrypted version of the message.