Patent ID: 7877784

Claim:
A method, comprising: creating a certificate registry including authentication certificates issued to each one of a plurality of information providers and a root certificate corresponding to all of said authentication certificates, wherein each one of said authentication certificates links respective authentication information thereof to identification information of a corresponding one of said information providers, wherein each one of said authentication certificates is devoid of linkage between the corresponding one of said information providers and domain name information thereof, and wherein said authentication certificates of the certificate registry are associated in a manner at least partially dependent upon at least one of a particular type of information that said information providers provide, a particular organization that said information providers are associated with, a particular type profession in which said information providers are engaged and a particular geographical region in which said information providers are located; providing the root certificate to an information recipient; and facilitating verification of a webpage accessed by the information recipient and having an authentication certificate associated therewith, wherein said verification includes successfully verifying authenticity of said associated authentication certificate using authentication information contained in the root certificate thereby verifying that said associated authentication certificate belongs to the certificate registry and, after said successfully verifying authenticity of said associated authentication certificate, successfully verifying identity of a designated owner of the webpage using authentication information contained in said associated authentication certificate.