Certified miners can be miners associated with certified public identifiers. In some embodiments, the certified public identifiers can be associated with a Trusted Execution Environment (TEE). In several embodiments mining can be based on a quality function. In various embodiments, to reduce grinding, the challenge can be based on an already closed collection of ledger entries. A device can be configured to close a ledger maintained by a cryptographic system. In an embodiment, the device includes a network interface, memory, and a processor configured to obtain a challenge using a cryptographic system, wherein the challenge is based on a closed collection of ledger entries on a ledger, to determine a quality value based on the challenge and a value; and to transmit a mining attempt to securely close a second collection of ledger entries on the ledger. The mining attempt is capable of being validated by using the cryptographic system.

Device access authorization via connected user equipment is performed with a device including a controller, a memory in communication with the controller, the memory storing a device identifier, a registration service, and a limited access service, and a secure element in communication with the controller, the secure element storing a device authentication key and a registry certificate. The controller includes circuitry configured to transmit an authorization request to the user equipment, the authorization request including a request for authorization from a registry server, the device identifier, the user identifier, and the registry server challenge, receive an authorization response from the user equipment, the authorization response including an authorization confirmation and a registry server signature, verify the registry server signature using the registry certificate, and notify the user equipment of a limited access service in response to receiving the authorization confirmation and successfully verifying the registry server signature.

A system for providing network monitoring and a captive learning portal for a network including a parent device and at least one child devices is provided. The system includes a server providing an authentication system and a learning management system, a gateway device providing a router function and a firewall function. The gateway device connects with the child device and prompts to enter child credentials associated with a child account, communicates with the server to verify the child credentials, and allocate a first time limit to the child account, grants access to the Internet for the child device associated with the child account via the router function in response to successful verification of the child credentials, and blocks access to the Internet for the child device associated with the child account via the firewall function upon said first time limit being reached according to parental control settings for the child account.

An apparatus and method for performing authentication using biometric authentication processing at a portable terminal connected to a multifunction peripheral (MFP) is provided. A web application accesses the portable terminal via a web browser of the MFP and the MFP transmits a request for information about service to the portable terminal. In a case where information corresponding to the web application is included in the information about service received from the portable terminal responsive to the request, the MFP transmits an authentication request to the portable terminal according to a request from the web application, and transmits, to the web application, an authentication result received from the portable terminal responsive to the authentication request.

Systems and methods for root-level application selective configuration for managing installation of applications in a file system include at least one computing device and an agent. The at least one computing device can receive selections from a user for a file and for actions desired to be executed on the file. Instead of requiring a particular privilege level for the user, the agent can be provided privileges based on a policy file associated with the selected file, thereby allowing the selectable actions to be executed via the agent. The agent can be executed by the at least one computing device and register with an OS during a boot sequence. The agent can receive a selection of a file and render a context menu based on metadata from an associated policy file. The context menu can include one or more badges providing an indication of executable actions for the selected file.

A method of providing credentials to enable a second party to verify an identity of a first party. The first party is associated with a first public key which is registered with a third party. One or more first credentials are provided to the second party. A request transaction is obtained, which comprises a) an input comprising a signature generated based on a respective private key of the third party, and b) an output locked to a second public key of the first party. The second public key is based on the first public key. A confirmation transaction is generated. The confirmation transaction comprises an input that references the output of the request transaction, and a signature generated based on a private key corresponding to the second public key of the first party. The confirmation transaction is transmitted to nodes of a blockchain network for inclusion in a blockchain.

A key management apparatus receives a key request including a first device identification information and a second device identification information, encrypts a common key using the first device identification information to generate a first encrypted common key, encrypts the common key using the second device identification information to generate a second encrypted common key, and transmits a key response including the first encrypted common key and the second encrypted common key. A first device receives the key response, decrypts the first encrypted common key using the first device identification information to obtain the common key, and transmits the second encrypted common key. A second device receives the second encrypted common key and decrypts the second encrypted common key using the second device identification information to obtain the common key.

Techniques are provided for providing multi-factor authentication with Uniform Resource Locator (URL) validation (MFAUV). One of the multiple authentication factors used may include a unique, user-specific URL that is sent to the user within a message. In this way, the user may simply click on, or otherwise execute or select, the provided URL, directly from within the message in which the URL is provided.

A method for securing a blockchain and incentivizing the storage of blockchain data using a publicly verifiable proof of retrievability (PoR) includes receiving a PoR transaction having a PoR proof, determining whether the PoR proof is a verified PoR proof, and based upon determining that the PoR proof is a verified PoR proof, incorporating, by a block creator node, the PoR transaction into a new block of the blockchain.

The system for credential authentication comprises an interface and a processor. The interface is configured to receive a request from an application for authorization to access, wherein access to the application is requested by a user using a user device. The processor is configured to provide a login request to the user; validate a login response; determine a user authentication device based on the login response; provide a proof request to the user authentication device; receive a proof response; determine that the proof response is valid using a distributed ledger; generate a token; and provide the token to the application authorizing access for the user.