Apparatus and method of protecting private information in distributed network

An apparatus of protecting private information of a service providing terminal in a distributed network, the apparatus comprising:

• a request receiving unit to receive, from a service request terminal, a request of trust information associated with a level of trust of the service providing terminal with respect to a desired service;
• a trust information generation unit to determine the level of trust based on a history of the service providing terminal in the providing of the desired service, and to generate the trust information based on the determined level of trust;
• and
• an information transmission unit to transmit the generated trust information to the service request terminal,
• wherein the trust information generation unit is configured to prevent external forgery of the trust information.

A method of protecting private information of a service providing terminal in a distributed network, the method comprising:

• receiving, from a service request terminal, a request of trust information associated with a level of trust of the service providing terminal with respect to an desired service;
• determining the level of trust based on a history of the service providing terminal in the providing of the desired service, and generating the trust information based on the determined level of trust;
• and
• transmitting the generated trust information to the service request terminal.

A computer readable medium storing instructions configured to cause a computer to:

• request a service providing terminal to provide trust information associated with a level of trust of the service providing terminal with respect to a service provided by the service providing terminal;
• receive the trust information from the service providing terminal;
• and
• determine whether to be provided with the service from the service providing terminal based on the trust information.