Lightweight authentication of information
First Claim
1. An information authentication method for authenticating items of information, said items of information containing lightweight authentication data relating to others of the items of information, and at least one or more of said items of information containing heavyweight authentication data respectively relating to themselves, the method comprising the steps of:
- a) authenticating a first one of the items of information which contains heavyweight authentication data using said heavyweight authentication data;
b) authenticating another one of the items of information using the lightweight authentication data contained within the first item of information; and
c) iteratively repeating step b) using lightweight authentication data from the item of information which was authenticated in the previous iteration so as to authenticate one or more further of the items of information.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An authentication method for linked data is provided, which does away with the conventional requirement for secure authentication of every item of data using public key encryption or Message Access Codes. A subscriber to an indexed event announcement channel can access a first item of information which contains pointers to other items of information in which the user might be interested. A hash value of the pointed-to information is also provided in addition to the pointers themselves. In order to provide for authentication of the pointed-to information, the user authenticates the first item of information using a secure heavyweight authentication technique, and then uses the hash values of the pointed-to information contained in the first item of information to authenticate the pointed-to information when the user accesses it.
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Citations
39 Claims
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1. An information authentication method for authenticating items of information, said items of information containing lightweight authentication data relating to others of the items of information, and at least one or more of said items of information containing heavyweight authentication data respectively relating to themselves, the method comprising the steps of:
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a) authenticating a first one of the items of information which contains heavyweight authentication data using said heavyweight authentication data;
b) authenticating another one of the items of information using the lightweight authentication data contained within the first item of information; and
c) iteratively repeating step b) using lightweight authentication data from the item of information which was authenticated in the previous iteration so as to authenticate one or more further of the items of information. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 19)
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10. A method of generating authenticable items of information which contain heavyweight authentication data relating to themselves, and lightweight authentication data relating to other such items of information, comprising the steps of:
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a) generating lightweight authentication data specific to one or more of the other such of items of information;
b) compiling a new item of information comprising the lightweight authentication data;
c) generating heavyweight authentication data relating to the new item of information; and
d) including the heavyweight authentication data as part of the new item of information. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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22. An apparatus for authenticating items of information, said items of information containing lightweight authentication data relating to others of the items of information, and at least one or more of said items of information containing heavyweight authentication data respectively relating to themselves, the apparatus comprising:
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a) heavyweight authentication means for authenticating a first one of the items of information which contains heavyweight authentication data using said heavyweight authentication data; and
b) lightweight authentication means for authenticating another one of the items of information using the lightweight authentication data contained within the first item of information;
wherein said lightweight authentication means is further arranged to iteratively repeat its operation using lightweight authentication data from the item of information which was authenticated in the previous iteration so as to authenticate one or more further of the items of information. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
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31. An apparatus for generating authenticable items of information which contain heavyweight authentication data relating to themselves, and lightweight authentication data relating to other such items of information, the apparatus comprising:
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a) lightweight authentication data generating means arranged in use to generate lightweight authentication data specific to one or more of the other such of items of information;
b) an information compiler arranged to compile a new item of information comprising the lightweight authentication data; and
c) heavyweight authentication data generating means for generating heavyweight authentication data relating to the new item of information;
said information compiler being further arranged to include the heavyweight authentication data as part of the new item of information. - View Dependent Claims (32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39)
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Specification