At+t Corp.

David W Faucher

Daniel Nelson Heer

Michael M Kaplan

David P Maher

In a communication system in which a node may communicate over insecure channels with any of a plurality of terminals and may pass messages from any of the terminals to any other of the terminals, communication is secured by computing a first cryptovariable from information associated with certificates exchanged between the node and a terminal, computing a second cryptovariable from a prior-art public key exchange, and computing a session cryptovariable as a function of the first and second cryptovariables. This can be done asymmetrically, enabling a terminal to verify the security of an unattended node.

Secure communication method and apparatus

A security node disposed in the telecommunications network connecting calling and called parties transforms information (which can be voice, data, facsimile, video and other types of calls or messages) encrypted in a first format to (a) encrypted information in a different format or to (b) non-encrypted information, and vice-versa. The node is accessible from any location connected to the network. By routing calls or messages originated by the calling party and destined for the called party via the security node, and providing appropriate control signals to the node, the information may be encrypted only over a portion of the transmission path between the parties, and clear over the remainder of the transmission path. Alternatively, the information may be encrypted in different portions of the path using different encryption algorithms. This arrangement enables the parties to obtain relatively secure communications even if only one party has a security device at the originating or terminating end, or if the parties have security devices using different handshaking protocols and encryption algorithms.

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Salem, NH, United States of America

David W Faucher