Cross Enterprise Communication via Intermediary Certificate Authority
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Solution Overview
Problem
Maintaining accurate lists of authorized senders and recipients across enterprises for encrypted communication is complex and error-prone, especially when personnel join or leave, leading to potential authorization issues in data transmission.
Innovation Solution
A system for cross-enterprise communication that involves a processor to receive, validate, decrypt, re-encrypt, and sign messages, using enterprise names instead of individual sender names, simplifying list management by maintaining a single enterprise distinguished name for authorized senders and recipients.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If individual sender names are maintained in authorized lists across enterprises, then communication security is ensured through precise identification, but system complexity increases and maintenance becomes error-prone when personnel join or leave
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary certificate authority (CA) that issues enterprise certificates representing all authorized senders within an enterprise. Instead of maintaining individual sender names across enterprises, each enterprise receives a single certificate from the CA that validates all its authorized senders. This intermediary layer simplifies list management while maintaining security through the trusted CA validation mechanism.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent merges multiple individual sender identities into a single enterprise-level certificate. The CA signs a certificate containing the enterprise name, and all authorized senders within that enterprise are validated through this single merged certificate. This combining approach reduces the number of entries in authorized lists from many individual names to just one enterprise identifier per enterprise.
2Reliability
If individual sender names are maintained in authorized lists, then precise authorization control is achieved, but time consumption increases due to constant updates when personnel changes occur
Solution Approach 1:
The CA acts as an intermediary that handles all authorization updates centrally. When personnel join or leave an enterprise, the CA updates its records and reissues or modifies the enterprise certificate accordingly. Other enterprises do not need to manually update their authorized sender lists because they trust the CA's validation. This eliminates the time-consuming manual update process across multiple enterprises while maintaining precise authorization control through the CA's centralized management.
Solution Approach 2:
The CA performs preliminary validation and certificate issuance before cross-enterprise communication occurs. By pre-establishing trust through the CA-signed enterprise certificates, the system avoids time-consuming verification processes during actual communication. The authorization control is established in advance through the certificate validation mechanism, eliminating the need for real-time list updates when personnel changes occur.
3Ease of operation
If enterprise names are used instead of individual sender names, then list management is simplified and update frequency is reduced, but verification complexity may increase
Solution Approach 1:
The CA serves as a trusted intermediary that signs enterprise certificates, providing a verification mechanism that is both simple and secure. When a sender presents their certificate, the receiving enterprise validates it through the trusted CA's signature. This intermediary-based verification is actually simpler than checking individual sender names against lengthy lists, because it reduces to a single cryptographic validation step rather than comparing against multiple individual identifiers.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the mechanical process of manually comparing sender names against authorized lists with cryptographic certificate validation. Instead of checking whether a sender's name appears in an authorized list, the system uses digital signatures and certificate verification algorithms. This substitution automates the verification process, making it both easier to operate and more reliable, as the cryptographic validation is deterministic and error-free.
Data Source
AI summary
A system enables intermediary communication components to carry out cross enterprise communication. At a first sending enterprise the system comprises: a processor executing code to: receive a signed encrypted message from a sender within a first enterprise; validate the sender; decrypt the message; encrypt the message for receipt by a second enterprise; sign the encrypted message by the first enterprise; and send the re-signed re-encrypted message to a second enterprise. At the second receiving enterprise, the system comprises a processor executing code to: receive a signed encrypted message from a first enterprise; validate that the first enterprise is the sender; decrypt the message; encrypt the message for receipt by recipients at the second enterprise; sign the encrypted message by the second enterprise indicating that the message is from the first enterprise; and send the re-signed re-encrypted message to the recipients of the second enterprise.