Graduated authentication in an identity management system

A computer-implemented method comprising:

• receiving, at a homesite, from a membersite, a request for user information, the request having an associated security level;
• determining, at the homesite, in accordance with the security level associated with the received request, a security level of a response to the request;
• and
• transmitting, from the homesite, the response to the received request over a channel selected from a plurality of channels in accordance with the determined response security level,
• wherein at least some individual channels of the plurality of channels have different levels of security than other individual channels of the plurality of channels.

A computer-readable storage device storing instructions configured to, by being executed by a computing device with one or more processors, cause the computing device to perform operations, the operations comprising:

• sending to a homesite a request for user information, the request including an associated security level;
• receiving from the homesite over a channel selected from a plurality of channels, a response to the request,
• wherein the channel is selected in accordance with a response security level determined by the homesite, and the response security level is based on the security level associated with the request, and
• wherein at least at least one channel of the plurality of channels has a different level of security than another channel of the plurality of channels;
• and
• verifying that the response was sent using a response security level based on the security level.