Patent ID: 7568106

Claim:
A method of performing cooperative non-repudiated message exchange from a first system to a second system in a computer network, said method comprising: checking for discrepancies between a current system time in said second system with an actual time; performing a time synchronization process to match said current system time with said actual time; exchanging public encryption keys between the first and second systems; sending a digitally signed message from said first system to said second system; decoding said digitally signed message; sending a digitally signed acknowledgment message from said second system to said first system; decoding said digitally signed acknowledgment message; committing text of said digitally signed message to an official transcript on said first system; transmitting a reconciliation message between said first and second systems; decoding said reconciliation message, wherein said reconciliation message comprises a payload comprising a transcript; determining an accuracy of said transcript by creating transcript deltas between identified text in said transcript and actual text in said transcript; sending a digitally signed reconciliation response message; decoding said digitally signed reconciliation response message; reviewing said transcript; determining whether to accept said transcript, wherein said time synchronization process comprises: verifying, by said second system, said current system time of said second system; determining whether an official time check of said second system is required; connecting to a list of known timeservers to resynchronize said current system time of said second system; validating said current system time of said second system with said timeservers; determining whether said current system time matches a pre-specified threshold; and determining whether to accept said current system time as said actual time, wherein the decoding of said digitally signed message comprises: verifying a digital signature of said digitally signed message; and verifying a digital integrity of said digitally signed message, wherein the decoding of said digitally signed acknowledgment message comprises: verifying a digital signature of said digitally signed acknowledgment message; verifying a digital integrity of said digitally signed acknowledgment message; identifying a message identifier and a digital signature in said digitally signed acknowledgment message; and verifying that said digital signature matches a digital signature generated for said message identifier, and wherein the decoding of said reconciliation message comprises: verifying a digital signature of said reconciliation message; and verifying an integrity of said reconciliation message.