A method for securely transferring the personality of a postage meter system to a replacement postage meter system at a non-secure location when communication keys involved in encrypting and signing of communications between the postage meter system and a data center get out of synchronism between the data center and the postage meter system, the method comprising the steps of: connecting a security tool to said postage meter system at said non-secure location; said security tool retrieving data from said postage meter system, and said security tool signing said retrieved data; connecting said security tool to the data center and transmitting said signed data to said data center; validating said signature and content of said retrieved data at said data center; said data center processing the retrieved data, and data related to the postage meter system that is stored at the data center, to create and sign replacement adjusted data for reconstructing the personality of the postage meter system at the replacement postage meter system, and transmitting said signed replacement adjusted data from said data center to said security tool at said non-secure location; said security tool sending said signed replacement adjusted data to said replacement postage meter system; said replacement postage meter system validating and installing said signed replacement adjusted data in said replacement postage meter system at said non-secure location, whereby the personality of the postage meter system is transferred to the replacement postage meter system; and said replacement postage meter system securely auditing said installed replacement adjusted data with said data center, wherein said postage meter system is of the type having a user interface controller component and a postal security device component, and said replacement postage meter is of the type having a user interface controller component and a postal security device component, engineering keys within the postal security device of the postage meter system are used to extract the data from the postage meter system, and the data center verifies the integrity of the data being extracted using the engineering keys. connecting a security tool to said postage meter system at said non-secure location; said security tool retrieving data from said postage meter system, and said security tool signing said retrieved data; connecting said security tool to the data center and transmitting said signed data to said data center; validating said signature and content of said retrieved data at said data center; said data center processing the retrieved data, and data related to the postage meter system that is stored at the data center, to create and sign replacement adjusted data for reconstructing the personality of the postage meter system at the replacement postage meter system, and transmitting said signed replacement adjusted data from said data center to said security tool at said non-secure location; said security tool sending said signed replacement adjusted data to said replacement postage meter system; said replacement postage meter system validating and installing said signed replacement adjusted data in said replacement postage meter system at said non-secure location, whereby the personality of the postage meter system is transferred to the replacement postage meter system; and said replacement postage meter system securely auditing said installed replacement adjusted data with said data center, wherein said postage meter system is of the type having a user interface controller component and a postal security device component, and said replacement postage meter is of the type having a user interface controller component and a postal security device component, engineering keys within the postal security device of the postage meter system are used to extract the data from the postage meter system, and the data center verifies the integrity of the data being extracted using the engineering keys.