Abstract: A method for forming a digital certificate includes receiving contact information associated with the digital certificate. The contact information includes at least a name, a mailing address, and an email address. The method also includes receiving billing information associated with the digital certificate and receiving a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) for the digital certificate. The method further includes receiving a first name for use in forming the digital certificate and receiving a second name for use in forming the digital certificate. Moreover, the method includes receiving an indication of a vendor of web server software, receiving an indication of a service period for the digital certificate, and forming the digital certificate. The first name is stored in a Subject field of the digital certificate and the second name is stored in the SubjectAltName extension of the digital certificate.

Abstract: A method of restricting access to private keys in a public key infrastructure provides for storage of an encrypted private key at a primary site. A masked session key is stored at a secondary site, where the masked session key enables recovery of the private key. By using distributed storage architecture for recovery data, simplification can be achieved without sacrificing security.

Abstract: A method of restricting access to private keys in a public key infrastructure provides for storage of an encrypted private key at a primary site. A masked session key is stored at a secondary site, where the masked session key enables recovery of the private key. By using distributed storage architecture for recovery data, simplification can be achieved without sacrificing security.

Abstract: A public key management infrastructure (104) is shared by at least two users (102). A method (300) for managing risk arising from a user's use of the shared public key management infrastructure (104) includes the following steps. The user (102) is associated (301) with a digital certificate (200) which is issued and digitally signed by a certification authority (CA). The digital certificate (200) represents that the user (102) is bound to a public key (210) corresponding to a private key held by the user (102); the public key (210) and the private key form a key pair for use in public-key cryptography. The digital certificate (200) further includes an access label (216), which may identify the domain (105) within the public key management infrastructure (104) which the user (102) is authorized to access and/or the privileges which the user (102) is authorized to exercise. The user's identity and the validity of the digital certificate (200) are established (303,305).

Abstract: Unique identifications are assigned to entities in a network and items in a database. In general, unique identifications are assigned to entities or data items within a network by a plurality of server entities, each server entity capable of obtaining a unique subset of identifications from other server entities, assigning an identification from its subset to another server entity, subdividing its own subset to form other unique subsets and assigning a unique subset to another server entity. Each server entity receives its own server entity identification when it is installed and also may request to receive a unique subset of entity identifications. A subset of entity identifications, also referred to interchangeably herein as a "block" of entity identifications, comprises one or more entity identifications. Each server entity controls the assignment of the entity identifications within the subsets it receives.