Patent · US Active

Method and system for verifying the identity of a communication partner

US8458456B2 · kind B2 · utility

10Cited by

1References

20Claims

0Family size

Assignee

NEC EUROPE LTD. · DE

Inventors

Saverio Niccolini · Heidelberg, DE
Jan Seedorf · Heidelberg, DE
Nico D'Heureuse · Heidelberg, DE

Key dates

Filing date	Apr 30, 2008
Grant date	Jun 4, 2013
Priority date	—
Expiry date	Feb 23, 2029

Classification

Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
CPC primaryH04L63/126
WIPO fieldDigital communication
WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A method for verifying the identity of a communication partner, in particular in real-time communications, wherein a caller (A) sends a message towards a callee (B), and wherein the caller (A) attaches a self-signed certificate to the message, characterized in that the caller (A) and the callee (B) are part of a web-of-trust, wherein certificates of users within the web-of-trust are stored by one or more key-servers (3), wherein trust relationships between users within the web-of-trust are employed to compute a trust-chain between the caller (A) and the callee (B) based upon the certificate attached to the message and upon the callee's certificate, and wherein the further processing of the message received by the callee (B) is based on the length of the derived trust-chain. Furthermore, a corresponding system is described.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.