Patent ID: 6901512

Claim:
A cryptographic system, comprising: at least one server; any number of clients; at least one application located on one of the at least one server, each capable of engaging in a context-free multi-part communication session with any of the clients; a key repository process on one of the at least one server, the key repository process configured to validate and record authorizations of specific programs to access one or more than one set of symmetric keys, wherein each of the at least one application is configured to query the key repository process for one or more than one set of symmetric keys, and the key repository process further configured, in response to the query from a particular instance of the at least one application, to provide the requested one or more than one set of symmetric keys to the particular instance of the at least one application but only if the key repository process authenticates the particular instance of the at least one application as being pre-authorized to receive the requested one or more than one set of symmetric keys; the particular instance of the at least one application can utilize the one or more than one set of symmetric keys for securely off-loading sensitive information in any intermediate part of the context-free multi-part communication session; and the key repository process includes a database for storing the one or more than one set of symmetric keys, each set of symmetric keys including an integrity key for ensuring the integrity of information stored in the database and a protection key configured to protect sensitive information on the database, the database storing there within operator entries used to retain the value of the integrity key and owner entries used to retain a share of the protection key.