Patent ID: 8032943

Claim:
A computer-readable storage medium, wherein the computer-readable storage medium is not a transient signal, the computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions to perform acts comprising: authenticating a software application that requests access to sealed data; and providing at least one cryptographic service for the software application, wherein: the computer-executable instructions to perform the at least one cryptographic service are separate from the software application and invocable by an application programming interface call from the software application; the at least one cryptographic service comprises unsealing the sealed data, wherein the software application can only open the sealed data after an activation of the software application; the activation comprising obtaining an activation certificate and secure repository executable component, wherein the secure repository executable component is uniquely tied to a first device on which the software application is executed and is obtained by downloading the secure repository executable component from a secure repository server; the secure repository executable component contains a first private key that is required for unsealing the sealed data; the activation certificate contains a second private key that is encrypted using a public key of the secure repository executable component; the sealed data is encrypted using a symmetric key; the symmetric key is encrypted with a public key contained in the activation certificate; the secure repository executable component decrypts the second private key by using the first private key; the decrypted second private key is used to decrypt the symmetric key; and the decrypted symmetric key is used to unseal the sealed data.