Patent ID: 8239927

Claim:
One or more nonvolatile computer-storage media having computer-usable instructions embodied thereon for performing a method of validating an authentication ticket to ensure authenticated communications between a client and an online service provider, the method comprising: at an authentication server, receiving an authentication request from a user agent associated with the client, wherein the authentication request is a request to access a service provided by the online service provider, the authentication request including a set of identification information and a set of authentication information; determining that the set of identification information and the set of authentication information are associated with a user; creating the authentication ticket including a user identification and an authentication, wherein the authentication ticket indicates to the online service provider that the user is authenticated to access one or more services provided by the online service provider; at the authentication server, embedding a validation token into the authentication ticket, the validation token providing enhanced verification that the access provided by the online service provider to the one or more services is authenticated, wherein the validation token is an IP address associated with the client; and encrypting the authentication ticket using a hash of a URL of the online service provider as an initialization vector.