Patent ID: 7941380

Claim:
A method of associating at least one cryptographic key with a specific user and storing an associated key in a datastore specific to the specific user, the method comprising: storing a set of personal identifiers, including at least one personal identifier, associated with the specific user in a datastore specific to the specific user; linking the set of personal identifiers with at least one cryptographic key generated for the specific user; signing, with a certificate authority, one of the at least one cryptographic keys; communicating a success code from an e-signature application to an authentication engine after successfully completing said signing operation; and registering the specific user for the e-signature application upon receiving the success code at the authentication engine, wherein the set of personal identifiers includes at least one biometric identifier, and another of the at least one cryptographic keys is subsequently accessed by capturing the at least one biometric identifier from a user at a client system, the client system being configured to communicate with at least the authentication engine, comparing the captured at least one biometric identifier against a datastore of previously stored personal identifiers with the authentication engine, and on matching a personal identifier with the captured at least one biometric identifier, providing the other cryptographic key for use.