Patent ID: 7418597

Claim:
A certificate proxy system providing a unified certificate request interface to a plurality of certificate authorities, comprising: a processor; a network interface connectible to a data communications network, said network interface further controllable by said processor; a storage device group readable by said processor, said storage device group containing at least one storage device operable to contain operating system files and applications; instructions stored to said storage device group, said instructions being further executable by said processor to achieve the functions of: (i) presenting a uniform interface for receiving information pertaining to the submission of an individual certificate signing request to the plurality of certificate authorities, said interface providing a uniform set of entries for information items required in a certificate signing request generally, (ii) presenting a selectable object whereby a choice of one of the plurality of certificate authorities may be entered, (iii) receiving entry items through the uniform interface and a selection of a certificate authority, (iv) storing items of identification sufficient to identify a requesting entity to each of the plurality of certificate authorities, and (v) communicating with a certificate authority interface of the selected certificate authority, the communicating presenting at least the received entry items required by the selected certificate authority, the communication it its totality presenting a certificate signing request to the selected certificate authority, the communication further presenting items of identification whereby a requesting entity may be associated to the certificate signing request.