| 摘要 |
Techniques are described for constructing and maintaining secure communities over a computer network, such as the Internet. In particular, the techniques allow security to be integrated and managed in a "directory-centric" fashion. In other words, the techniques described herein allow a community of trusted members (48A, 48B) to easily be managed via one or more online directories (46) rather than hierarchical certification authorities. In addition, the invention provides techniques for validating security credentials locally within an enterprise (45A, 45B). A trust server within the enterprise (45A, 45B) intercepts a validation request from a secure electronic service (50) within the enterprise. If the trust server is unable to answer the validation request, the trust server queries a bridge service provider, which associates the trust server with trust servers maintained by other enterprises, for the security credential information necessary for validation.
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