초록

A communication network encrypts a first portion of a transaction associated with point-to-point communications using a point-to-point encryption key. A second portion of the transaction associated with end-to-end communications is encrypted using an end-to-end encryption key.

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The invention claimed is: 1. A method for encrypting channels of data in a transaction comprising: encryption of a first data channel in the transaction using a first security association known by a network intermediary device; encryption of a second data channel in the transaction using a second s

The invention claimed is: 1. A method for encrypting channels of data in a transaction comprising: encryption of a first data channel in the transaction using a first security association known by a network intermediary device; encryption of a second data channel in the transaction using a second security association known by a network endpoint device but unknown to the network intermediary device, wherein the first data channel consists of control data and the second data channel consists of payload data. 2. The method according to claim 1 wherein the first data channel consists of point-to-point data and the second data channel consists of end-to-end data. 3. The method according to claim 1 wherein the control data in the first data channel includes transaction authentication and routing information and the payload data in the second data channel includes the contents of email messages or electronic files. 4. The method according to claim 1 further comprising: negotiating a first encryption key with the network intermediary device, the first encryption key used for encrypting/decrypting the control data in the first data channel; and negotiating a second encryption key with the network endpoint device, the second encryption key used for encrypting/decrypting the payload data in the second data channel. 5. The method according to claim 1 further comprising leaving a third data channel in the transaction unencrypted. 6. The method according to claim 1 further comprising: separating different items in the transaction into different data channels; assigning different security associations to the different data channels; encoding the separated items into data groups; encrypting some or all of the data groups according to the security associations assigned to the data channels; and encoding the processed data groups into one or more packets. 7. The method according to claim 1 further comprising: encoding a first set of packets containing the control data in the first channel; encoding a second set of packets containing the payload data in the second channel; and encoding a packet header that contains unencrypted data, the packet header used for transporting the first and second set of packets to the network intermediary device and at least partially used to transport at least the second set of packets from the network intermediary device to the network endpoint device. 8. A network processing device, comprising: one or more processors configured to: receive a transaction from a first network device containing a first portion of data encrypted using a first known encryption key and a second portion of data encrypted using a second unknown encryption key; decrypt the first portion of data using the first encryption key while the second portion of data remains encrypted; using the decrypted first portion of data to authenticate the transaction; and forwarding at least a portion of the transaction to a second network device when the transaction is authenticated. 9. The network processing device according to claim 8 wherein the one or more processors are further configured to negotiate the first encryption key with the first network device. 10. The network processing device according to claim 9 wherein the one or more processors are further configured to negotiate a third encryption key with the second network device, the first encryption key unknown to the second network device and the third encryption key unknown to the first network device. 11. The network processing device according to claim 10 wherein the one or more processors are further configured to re-encrypt at least some of the decrypted first portion of data using the third encryption key, and send both the re-encrypted first portion of data with the encrypted second portion of data to the second network device. 12. The network processing device according to claim 11 wherein the transaction includes a third unencrypted portion of data, the one or more processors further configured to combine at least some of the decrypted first portion of data with the third unencrypted portion of data and send the combined first and third portion of data to the second network device. 13. A method for encrypting information, comprising: negotiating a first encryption key with a first endpoint; receiving a transaction from the first endpoint containing control data encrypted using the first encryption key and payload data encrypted using a second unknown encryption key; and decrypting the control data to determine how to process and relay the transaction over a network to a second endpoint while the payload data remains encrypted. 14. The method according to claim 13 further comprising: negotiating a third encryption key with the second endpoint; re-encrypting at least some of the decrypted control data into new encrypted control data using the third encryption key; and relaying both the re-encrypted control data and the encrypted payload data to the second endpoint. 15. The method according to claim 13 further comprising: receiving unencrypted data in the transaction; re-encrypting the control data using a third encryption key combining the re-decrypted control data with the unencrypted data; and relaying the re-encrypted control data, unencrypted data, and encrypted payload data to the second endpoint. 16. An apparatus comprising a non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions, when executed by a processor or multiple communicating processors, perform a method comprising: negotiating a first encryption key with a first endpoint; negotiating a second encryption key with a second endpoint; receiving a transaction from the first endpoint directed to the second endpoint, the transaction including a first portion of data encrypted using the first encryption key and including a second portion of data encrypted using an unknown encryption key; decrypting the first portion of data using the first encryption key; re-encrypting at least some of the first portion of decrypted data using the second encryption key; and forwarding the re-encrypted data and the encrypted second portion of data to the second endpoint. 17. The apparatus according to claim 16 further comprising: separating items in the received transactions into channels associated with different security associations; encoding the items in each channel into bit arrays; and encrypting or decrypting the bit arrays for each channel according to the associated security associations. 18. The apparatus according to claim 16 further comprising: using an encryption schema to associate different types of items in the transactions with different security associations; encrypting or decrypting items in various received or transmitted transactions according to the encryption schema. 19. The apparatus according to claim 16 further comprising: receiving a third portion of data in the transaction that is unencrypted; and forwarding the third portion of unencrypted data to the second endpoint.