| CPC H04L 63/0823 (2013.01) [H04L 9/3247 (2013.01); H04M 3/42042 (2013.01); H04M 3/436 (2013.01); H04W 12/06 (2013.01)] | 20 Claims |

|
1. A method in a server for associating a digital certificate with a phone number associated with a first client, the method comprising:
receiving a request from the first client for a signed digital certificate, the request specifying the phone number associated with the first client and a uniform resource identifier (URI) of a relay server;
determining to utilize a first phone number verification process from a plurality of phone number verification processes based at least on the request;
providing, to the first client, a phone number verification request in accordance with the first phone number verification process, the phone number verification request specifying a first verification code;
responsive to receiving a second verification code, determining whether the second verification code matches the first verification code;
in response to determining that the second verification code matches the first verification code;
causing generation of a signed digital certificate comprising the URI of the relay server, and causing a lookup service to store the signed digital certificate in association with the first client; and
causing a second client to:
obtain the signed digital certificate from the lookup service, and
utilize the signed digital certificate to determine the URI of the relay server and send a message to the first client via at least the relay server, wherein the utilization of the signed digital certificate prevents the relay server from decrypting the message.
|