Patent ID: 8656177

Claim:
A method for supporting communications in an identity-based encryption (IBE) system in which a message encrypted using an IBE public key of a recipient external to an organization is to be sent over a communications network from a sender within the organization, comprising: at the sender, obtaining an internet protocol (IP) address of a local key server at the organization by presenting a given service name to a local domain name system server at the organization; obtaining IBE public parameter information from the local key server using the IP address; encrypting a message from the sender to create an IBE-encrypted message using the IBE public parameter information and the IBE public key of the recipient; sending the IBE-encrypted message to the recipient; at the recipient, obtaining an IP address of a public key server by presenting the given service name to a public domain name system server; obtaining an IBE private key from the public key server using the IP address of the public key server; and decrypting the IBE-encrypted message for the recipient using the IBE private key.