Patent ID: 7246378

Claim:
A method for managing access to messages in a network, the method comprising the computer-implemented steps of: receiving, from a first node in the network, a request for both a message identifier that uniquely identifies the message and a key that may be used to encode the message; generating, in response to receiving the request, both the message identifier and the key; providing both the message identifier and the key to the first node to allow the message to be encoded with the key to generate an encoded message; receiving, from a second node in the network, a request for the key; providing the key to the second node to allow the encoded message to be decoded and the message to be retrieved using the key; managing access to the key based upon key policy criteria; receiving and storing one or more encoded messages at the second node; requesting, receiving, and storing at the second node, one or more keys, wherein each of the keys is associated with one of the encoded messages that are stored at the second node; decoupling the second node from the network; and decoding the encoded messages based on the keys.