A system and method for establishing secure communications between two
entities, such as a server and a client, may involve the use of an
intermediate gateway. Each party may establish a secure communication
link with the gateway, and the gateway may provide signed certificates to
each party, each certificate identifying the gateway as the other party
for purposes of the communication. The gateway may then facilitate the
secure communications between the two parties, and may perform data
translation on the communications. The identification information may be
contained within the certificates used by the gateway.