Electronic authority server

Abstract

An electronic communication authority server that provides centralized key management, implementation of role-based enterprise policies and workflow and projection of corporate authorities over trusted networks. The authority server includes a key database that associates keys, signatures and indicators of corporate authority (such as letterhead) with particular corporate roles. There can be multiple roles or a single role (e.g., employee) for each authority server. Users associated with one or more roles are permitted by the authority server to exercise authority or include the indicators of authority in their communications. The authority server also encrypts/decrypts and signs/verifies communications from/to a user using the keys and signatures associated with the role being exercised by the user for that communication. The authority server permits roles to be delegated or transferred, which facilitates the execution by the authority server of role-dependent workflow procedures. In another embodiment, keys are not associated with individual roles but with servers and/or groups of users. In this embodiment a server processes a request from one of its users in accordance with the role-based policies it embodies and then, if necessary, indicates the identity of the requesting user in the end product of the request, which it then signs using its own key and encrypts with appropriate destination keys.