Patent ID: 8538028

Claim:
A system for public-key distribution and management for a plurality of users in a communications network comprising a plurality of domains, each domain served by a Domain Name System (DNS) server hierarchy, and the system comprising: a distributed server network comprising a plurality of key servers organized as a hierarchical network structure (key server hierarchy) comprising a domain tree hierarchy, each domain being registered to a respective key server, and a topmost level of the key server hierarchy comprising a directory server; one or more registration servers for registration of users, independently of domain registration and name service by the DNS server hierarchy, each user having a unique identifier and a public-private key pair; each registration server registering to a user a respective public key of the public-private key pair of the user associated with the unique identifier of the user, and sending a key request for storing the unique identifier and the associated public key on an assigned key server of the key server hierarchy; the key server hierarchy storing, for each user, on an assigned key server, the respective public key of the user associated with the unique identifier for look-up and retrieval by other users; and the key server hierarchy further comprising: a plurality of key address resolution (kDNS) servers, each network domain being registered to a respective kDNS server, each kDNS server storing for each of a plurality of said unique identifiers, an address of a key server storing the respective public key; and each kDNS server responding to key requests for storage and retrieval of a public key associated with a unique identifier by: determining, based on the unique identifier, an address of a respective assigned key server, directing the key request to the respective assigned key server for resolution, or directing unresolved requests to a kDNS server in another domain for resolution.