Patent ID: 8474037

Claim:
A method, comprising: running on a user computer a first operating environment for performing general purpose operations and a second operating environment configured exclusively for providing a secure communication session, wherein the second operating environment is isolated from the first operating environment, wherein general-purpose operations performed in the first operating environment do not affect operation of the second operating environment: communicating between the user computer and a first server to assess a trustworthiness level of the second operating environment of the user computer by communication between the second operating environment of the user computer and the first server; receiving by the user computer, a record from the first server indicating the trustworthiness level for storage by the second operating environment of the user computer; sending a request from the user computer to a second server, different from the first server, for a service to be provided to the user computer by the second server; and providing the record from the user computer to the second server by communicating between the user computer and the second server, to cause the second server to extract the trustworthiness level from the record, and conditionally allow the requested service to be provided to the user computer depending on the extracted trustworthiness level.