Workgroup key wrapping for community of interest membership authentication
OwnerRobert A. Johnson, Edward Chin +1inventors
InventorsRobert A. Johnson, Edward Chin, David Dodgson
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Abstract
Methods and systems for managing a community of interest are disclosed. One method includes creating a workgroup key associated with a community of interest, and protecting one or more resources associated with the community of interest using the workgroup key. The method also includes encrypting the workgroup key using a public key associated with an administrator of the community of interest, the public key included with a private key in a public/private key pair associated with the administrator. The method further includes storing the encrypted workgroup key and associating the workgroup key with a user, thereby adding the user to the community of interest.
Claims20
A method of managing a community of interest having access to a resource, the method comprising:
- creating a workgroup key associated with a community of interest;
- protecting one or more resources associated with the community of interest using the workgroup key;
- encrypting the workgroup key using a public key associated with an administrator of the community of interest, the public key included with a private key in a public/private key pair associated with the administrator;
- storing the encrypted workgroup key;
- and
- associating the workgroup key with a user, thereby adding the user to the community of interest.
A method of rekeying a community of interest including a plurality of users, each of the users having access to a workgroup key used to protect a resource, the method comprising:
- disassociating a workgroup key from each of the plurality of users having access to the workgroup key;
- creating a replacement workgroup key associated with the community of interest, the replacement workgroup key protecting the resource protected by the workgroup key;
- encrypting the replacement workgroup key using a key associated with an administrator of the community of interest;
- storing the encrypted replacement workgroup key;
- and
- associating the replacement workgroup key with each of the plurality of users, thereby including each of the plurality of users in the community of interest.
A system for managing membership in a community of interest, the system including:
- a key server accessible to a plurality of users and managing access to a plurality of resources, the key server including:
- a memory configured to store a directory including a plurality of user profiles, each user profile associated with a user;
- a programmable circuit communicatively connected to the memory, the programmable circuit configured to execute program instructions to:
- create a workgroup key associated with a community of interest;
- protect one or more of the plurality of resources associated with the community of interest using the workgroup key;
- encrypt the workgroup key using a public key associated with an administrator of the community of interest, the public key included with a private key in a public/private key pair associated with the administrator;
- store the encrypted workgroup key in a user profile of the administrator, the user profile of the administrator included in the directory;
- and
- associate the workgroup key with one or more users from among the plurality of users, thereby adding each of the one or more users to the community of interest.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.