Registry apparatus, agent device, application providing apparatus and corresponding methods

A registry apparatus for verifying trusted communication between an agent device and an application providing apparatus, comprising:

• storage circuitry configured to store a device registry comprising:
• a device registry entry for the agent device, the device registry entry comprising authentication model information identifying which of a plurality of authentication models is a selected authentication model to be used for uniquely authenticating the agent device,
• authentication information for uniquely authenticating the agent device, and
• trusted data about the application providing apparatus;
• communication circuitry configured to receive from the application providing apparatus an authentication request specifying a device identifier of the agent device, the device identifier of the agent device being associated with the device registry entry for the agent device in the device registry;
• and
• processing circuitry configured to perform verification of the agent device using the authentication model information and the authentication information from the device registry for the agent device identified by the device identifier specified by the authentication request without requiring communication between the agent device and the application providing apparatus to perform the verification;
• wherein responsive to determining that the verification is not successful, then the communication circuitry is configured to transmit to at least one of the agent device and the application providing apparatus revocation information for denying the trusted communication between the agent device and the application providing apparatus,
• wherein responsive to determining that the verification is successful, the communication circuitry is configured to create a trusted communication channel between the agent device and the application providing apparatus based on the authentication information for the agent device from the device registry and the trusted data about the application providing apparatus from the device registry, wherein the creation of the trusted communication channel by the registry apparatus is accomplished without requiring communication between the agent device and the application providing apparatus, and
• wherein the device registry is configured to create and maintain a black list of agent devices for which trusted communication between the agent device and the application providing apparatus should be denied without requiring communication between the agent device and the application providing apparatus.