USER AUTHENTICATION

摘要

An apparatus 1 for providing a mobile site building service comprises an originating server 2, a plurality of intermediary servers 3 and a mobile site server 4. The mobile site server 4 is configured to create mobile websites containing web resources suitable for use by mobile communication devices 6. The mobile websites may be associated with existing websites containing web resources suitable for use by PCs. The apparatus 1 allows users 5 to manage aspects of the creation of the mobile websites carried out by the mobile site server 4. In order to ensure that only the user 5 associated with a given existing website is able to manage the creation of the relevant mobile website, the intermediary servers 3 authenticate the users 5. The originating server 2 only provides a control panel allowing management of creation of the relevant mobile website to a user 5 following authentication by the intermediary server 3. Each intermediary server 3 is associated with a different public/private key pair. The intermediary servers 3 are configured to provide a link to the user 5. The link comprises a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) generated by the intermediary server 3 for identifying the control panel at the originating server 2. The URI includes a parameter signed using a private key of the public/private key pair associated with the intermediary server 3. Before the originating server 2 delivers the control panel to the user 5, the originating server 2 identifies the intermediary server 3 from an appropriate element of the URI and decodes a digest using the public key of the identified intermediary server 3.