Patent ID: 8745365

Claim:
A method for booting an operating system from a secure peripheral device on a host computer, the method comprising: communicatively coupling the secure peripheral device with the host computer, the secure peripheral device comprising a controller and memory maintaining a first operating system, a virtual machine player instance, an unlocker module, and in a secure area a secondary operating system image; executing said unlocker module by said controller, said host computer being able to read said secondary operating system image only after executing the unlocker module by said controller to unlock the secure area; booting said first operating system from the memory of the secure peripheral device; and after executing said unlocker module and unlocking said secure area, launching said secondary operating system image on the first operating system, wherein the virtual machine player instance is launched on the first operating system to run a virtual machine image on the host computer; wherein the first operating system is no longer running after launching the secondary operating system image; and wherein the first operating system communicates over a network to a third-party server to request permission for the secure peripheral device to unlock the secure area of the secure peripheral device memory and run the secondary operating system image.