Patent ID: 8107402

Claim:
A method for secure automated conferencing between authorized conference participants, the method comprising: scheduling a conference between a plurality of parties; assigning to each party a respective unique participant-ID; assigning a conference bridge number for the conference; storing correlation data correlating each party with the unique participant-ID assigned to the party; sending to each party a respective conference message containing a link designating the respective unique participant-ID assigned to the party, wherein the link is actionable by the party to cause initiation of communication with a conference server and to provide the conference server with a conference string, wherein the conference string comprises the conference bridge number and the unique participant-ID; and receiving into the conference server, from a given party, a participant-ID and verifying that the given party is an authorized conference participant, wherein verifying that the given party is an authorized conference participant comprises (i) identifying the given party initiating communication, (ii) using the correlation data to determine the unique participant-ID assigned to the identified party, and (iii) verifying that the participant-ID provided to the conference server by the given party corresponds to the determined unique participant-ID.