Patent ID: 8914874

Claim:
A method implemented in a computing device, the method comprising: responsive to the computing device desiring access to a communication channel device and prior to determining security precautions for use by the computing device and the communication channel device during a data transfer: obtaining a set of security claims for the communication channel device, the set of security claims including one or more security claims each identifying a security characteristic of the communication channel device; comparing the set of security claims for the communication channel device to a security policy of the computing device; identifying an entity that has digitally signed the set of security claims; and determining one or more security precautions that the computing device is to use in transferring data to and/or from the communication channel device, the determining being based at least in part on the comparing, the entity that has digitally signed the set of security claims, and a communication channel class identifier that has been digitally signed by the entity, the communication channel class identifier identifying a class of the communication channel device such that different communication channels of a same class share a same communication channel class identifier.