At+t Corp.

Rajendra Datar

Vishwa M Prasad

Earle H West, Iii

Daniel F Hurley

A participant ( ) in electronic commerce can validate his/her own certificate ( ) by accessing an authority ( ) that checks whether the participant's certificate is valid. If the certificate is valid, the authority embeds with the participant's terminal ( ) a block of data, in the form of a Cookie ( ) that includes a plurality of attributes indicative of the certificate, for example, the certificate's date of expiration. When accessing a secure application ( ), the participant presents both the certificate and the authenticating Cookie, obviating the need for a real-time inquiry to the authority, unless the Cookie is stale or missing.

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Clinton, NJ, United States of America

Rajendra Datar