Secure method of termination of service notification
View Patent ↗A method for notifying a client device of termination of at least one service provided to the client device by a server system within an enterprise network is disclosed. The method includes the step of establishing authentication data and notification data, where the authentication data is related to the notification data, and sending the authentication data to the client device for storage during a provisioning operation. When the server system identifies a termination of service, it sends the notification data to the client device, which may then authenticate the received notification data using the authentication data.
1. A method for notifying a wireless client device of termination of at least one service provided to the client device by a server system through a wireless network, the server system being disposed within an enterprise network having access to the wireless network, the server system having stored thereon notification data and the wireless client device having stored thereon authentication data, wherein the authentication data is related to the notification data, wherein said notification data includes a termination of service packet, and wherein said authentication data includes one or more termination of service packets to be compared to said notification data, and wherein the server system stores an encryption key associated with the wireless client device for encrypted communications for said at least one service, the method comprising:
determining, at the server system, that the encryption key is expired and that no other unexpired encryption keys are presently available in association with the wireless client device;
ceasing to provide the at least one service to the wireless client device;
and
in response to determining that the encryption key is expired, transmitting said notification data to the wireless client device to notify the wireless client device that the at least one service has been terminated,
wherein said client device may authenticate said notification data received from the server system on the basis of the stored authentication data and the relationship between the notification data and the authentication data.
2. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein said notification data is transmitted over a non-encrypted channel.
3. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein said notification data includes a termination of service packet, and wherein said authentication data includes one or more termination of service packets to be compared to said notification data.
4. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein said notification data includes an encoded termination of service packet that may be decoded using said authentication data.
5. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein said notification data is specific to both said at least one service and said client device.
6. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the at least one service includes an email forwarding service, and wherein the client device is associated with the server system.
7. The method as claimed in claim 1 , further including authenticating said notification data at the client device by deriving authentication data from said notification data and comparing said derived authentication data with said stored authentication data.
8. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein determining includes receiving an encrypted packet from the wireless client device and determining that the encrypted packet has been encrypted with an expired key.
9. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having encoded thereon computer executable instructions for configuring a processor to perform the method claimed in claim 1 .