System and method for expressing and evaluating signed reputation assertions

A reputation services system comprising:

• a computer system coupled a trusted entity to a network, the computer system comprising:
• a receiving module for receiving a request from a first party for a signed assertion concerning the reputation of a second party;
• a retrieval module adapted to retrieve over the network reputation-forming information (RFI) associated with the second party;
• a reputation module adapted to create a reputation statement concerning the second party, the reputation statement reflecting a calculation over the RFI and the reputation module binding a hash of a piece of content;
• an assertion generator module for generating an assertion about the second party from the reputation statement, at least a portion of the RFI, and said hash of said piece of content;
• a signing module adapted to generate the signed assertion by signing at least a portion of the assertion to identify the trusted entity as the source of the signed assertion;
• and
• a transmitter module adapted to send the signed assertion over the network to the first party.

A computing system associated with a trusted entity and connected to a computer network, the computer system including a non-transitory computer-readable medium embodying computer-executable instructions, which control the computer system to perform a method that comprises:

• receiving a request from a first party for a signed assertion concerning the reputation of a second party;
• retrieving reputation-forming information (RFI) associated with the second party, the RFI comprising information that permits the trusted entity to make the requested signed assertion concerning the reputation of the second party;
• creating a reputation statement concerning the second party from the RFI;
• binding a piece of content by generating a hash of the content;
• generating an assertion from the reputation statement, wherein the assertion includes the reputation statement, at least a portion of the RFI used to generate the reputation statement, said hash of the content, and an identity of the trusted entity;
• signing at least a portion of the assertion to produce said signed assertion to identify the trusted entity as the source of the signed assertion;
• and
• transmitting the signed assertion over the network to the first party.