Patent ID: 7725723

Claim:
A method of certifying electronic data supplied by a user, the method comprising: receiving data supplied by the user to be certified at a certifying apparatus from a source device; sending a request to a remote device instructing the remote device to send a password to the user wherein the password is sent from the remote device direct to the user without the password being received at the certifying apparatus; receiving, at the certifying apparatus direct from the remote device, a hash value derived from the password; receiving, at the certifying apparatus direct from the user, a further hash value derived from the password; comparing, at the certifying apparatus without receiving said password, the further hash value from the user with the hash value from the remote device; validating the user if the further hash value from the user matches the hash value from the remote device; certifying the data at the certifying apparatus with one or more elements of information secure to the certifying apparatus, said elements being unique to the user if the further hash value matches the hash value derived from the remote device; and outputting the data so certified from the certifying apparatus, for passing to a recipient device; wherein the elements of secure information certify that the supplier of the data is the user.