Patent ID: 8145718

Claim:
A method for communicating securely in an identity-based encryption (IBE) system in which message content is to be sent over a communications network from a sender at an organization to a recipient, wherein the recipient has an associated personalization image, comprising: at the sender, sending the message content from the sender to the recipient; at a gateway associated with the organization, obtaining the message content sent by the sender and encrypting the message content using an IBE encryption engine and the IBE public key of the recipient; at the gateway, creating an html email message that includes the encrypted message content and the personalization image associated with the recipient; sending the email message to the recipient, wherein the personalization image in the email message is sent in the clear without encryption; receiving the email message at the recipient; displaying the personalization image at the recipient for determination by visual inspection at the recipient of whether the personalization image is correct for the recipient; and in response to determining by visual inspection at the recipient that the personalization image is correct for the recipient, using a web browser at the recipient to obtain access to an unencrypted version of the encrypted message content.