DISTRIBUTED AUTHENTICATION IN PROTOCOL-BASED SPHERE OF TRUST WHERE GIVEN EXTERNAL CONNECTION OUTSIDE THE SPHERE OF TRUST CARRIES COMMUNICATIONS FROM MULTIPLE SOURCES

摘要

PURPOSE: A distributed authentication in a protocol-based sphere of trust where a given external connection outside the sphere of trust carries communications from multiple sources is provided to reduce the number of operations required for authentication. CONSTITUTION: A method enables a second internal computing system to validate an identity of an originating external computing system in a network environment having a protocol-based sphere of trust and a plurality of external computing systems. The second internal computing system receives the communication from a first internal computing system using the particular protocol. A list of internal computing systems that the second internal computing system trusts to authenticate external computing systems without separately authenticating the external computing systems is accessed. Whether either the first internal computing system is on the list, or that at least one of the internal computing systems in the trusted chain is on the list is determined. The identity of the originating external computing system is validated by virtue of the act of determining and without separately authenticating the external computing system.