Patent ID: 8190893

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for providing message authenticity for a message by an originating user to a recipient's computer, the method comprising the steps of: accepting, through the recipient's computer, from the originating user: (i) an encrypted authenticator component comprising authentication data and a user authentication key, wherein the user authentication key is displayed on an external device of the user, (ii) a message integrity component, and (iii) an encrypted key management component; decrypting the key management component, through the recipient's computer, to yield (a) a key which decrypts the user authentication key and (b) a message integrity key, wherein the entropy of the user authentication key is less than the entropy of the message integrity key; decrypting the authenticator component, through the recipient's computer, using the key which decrypts the user authentication key; authenticating the user, through the recipient's computer, using the authentication data; accepting, through the recipient's computer, a message comprising message data from the originating user's computer; and validating the message integrity component through the recipient's computer using the message integrity key and the message data, thereby validating the message.