Patent ID: 6941471

Claim:
A security architecture for a computer platform comprising at least one data processor and at least one memory means said architecture comprising: an applications layer for containing a plurality of user security applications; a layered services layer for containing a plurality of security services protocols; a common security services manager (CSSM) layer underlying the layered services layer comprising a plurality of security services management means, a set of integrity services, a manager of security contexts, and a plurality of interfaces for interfacing with add-in security modules; and an add-in security modules layer underlying the common security services manager layer, configured to accept a plurality of add-in security modules implementing a set of standard security services; a generic trust policy library within the add-in security modules layer and supporting a set of standard trust policy Application Programming Interfaces (APIs); a trust policy description file containing a set of domain-specific trust policies written in a policy description language common to said architecture; and a policy interpreter, said policy interpreter operating to interpret a set of policies contained in said policy description file.