Patent ID: 8225382

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving, by a computer system, a request for an identity from an applicant; notifying, by the computer system, a plurality of attesting resources of the request, each attesting resource is a particular resource that has permission and authority to grant an attestation, each attesting resource generates one or more assertions when requested to do so, and each assertion is a statement that includes roles, rights, and privileges for the applicant with respect to a particular attesting resource and that statement includes an indication as to the particular attesting resource that made the statement and under what authority that particular attesting resource had to make the statement, and a decision as to which of the attesting resources that are to be notified are driven by the request and the additional information provided by the applicant; acquiring, by the computer system, a plurality of assertions from the attesting resources for the identity, wherein acquiring further includes obtaining the assertions with signatures of the attesting resources; assembling, by the computer system, an attested identity, the attested identity assembled as the identity with the plurality of assertions organized as a collection of the assertions for the identity; providing, by the computer system, the attested identity with the assembled plurality of assertions to the applicant; storing and managing, by the computer system, the attested identity within a local environment of the computer system for purposes of providing centralized management for and on demand access to the applicant; and notifying, by the computer system, the applicant as certain rights, roles, and privileges are activated for the attested identity for purposes of permitting the applicant to acquire an updated form of the attested identity.