Patent ID: 7240202

Claim:
A method of sharing secure cryptographic connections between trusted computing entities which share a secret value, the computer-implemented method comprising the steps of: connecting an originally-connected entity to an original endpoint, the originally-connected entity having an entity name and cryptographic context information; and creating an entity identifier by encoding the entity name and the secret value, wherein by using the secret value necessary for access, the cryptographic context information can be retrieved, and wherein the entity identifier when decrypted with the secret value to acquire the entity name provides an index into a data structure for acquiring the cryptographic context information in order to establish a secure connection to the original endpoint, and wherein the cryptographic context information is shared with a plurality of other entities that are members of a group, each member engages in the secure connection by acquiring the cryptographic context information via the entity name that is acquired by decrypting the entity identifier with the secret value, and wherein the secret value is known to each of the members.