Patent ID: 8677466

Claim:
A method of verifying a digital certificate used for encrypted computer communications, the method comprising: monitoring communications between a web browser in a client computer and a web server computer; in the client computer, extracting a digital certificate from the communications before the digital certificate is received by the web browser; before the digital certificate is received by the web browser, performing a verification of the digital certificate in the client computer to verify that the web server computer is legitimate according to a trusted third party that provided the digital certificate, wherein the verification of the digital certificate is performed independent of the web browser; and blocking subsequent communications between the web browser and the web server computer when the digital certificate fails the verification, wherein the digital certificate comprises an SSL (secure socket layer) certificate and the trusted third party comprises a certification authority, wherein performing verification of the digital certificate comprises: providing the digital certificate to a remotely located security server computer over a computer network, and receiving a result of a comparison of the digital certificate to another digital certificate obtained by the remotely located security server computer from the web server computer.