US Patent 7953896 Managing user accounts and groups in multiple forests

Methods, systems, and computer program products are provided for managing contact proxies and security proxies in networks that are organized as forests. For instance, contact proxies may be generated to represent user accounts and groups in forests other than the home forests of the user accounts and groups. Security proxy objects may be generated to represent group members (e.g., security principals and groups) in groups in forests other than the home forests of the group members. Furthermore, when both a contact object and a security proxy object exist for a member added to a group, one of the contact object or the security proxy object may be selected to represent the member in the group.