Patent ID: 8086849

Claim:
A method for disseminating an event message throughout an event distribution network having a plurality of event distribution devices, the method comprising: a notification producer producing an encrypted notification of an event message for one or more recipient devices and sending the notification to an event distribution device, wherein the notification includes a code indicating the type of event message to generate and corresponding data to be disseminated and further includes an indication of a group of subscribers and/or recipient devices that are to receive the event message corresponding to the encrypted event notification, wherein the encrypted notification is encrypted with a separate notification message key that is only used to encrypt the event notification and is different than any event message keys used to encrypt event messages, and wherein a different event message key is used to encrypt each event message for each subscriber and/or recipient device; receiving the encrypted notification in said event distribution device by an event generation device, said event generation device being connected to a plurality of delivery devices, said event generation device determining which of said plurality of delivery devices is to receive the event message, each delivery device connected to specific recipient devices and includes a key broker, said event generation device obtaining a message key from a key broker of one of said delivery devices to which the event generation device has determined is associated with the specified recipient device; encrypting the event message with said message key to produce an encrypted event message in accordance with said encrypted notification; sending the encrypted event message and an address of a key broker, from the event generation device to said specified recipient devices via said corresponding delivery devices connected thereto, wherein the delivery device receives the event message and forwards the event message to each of the specified recipient devices from amongst the plurality of recipient devices to which the delivery device is associated, such that the recipient devices use the address to contact the key broker for a key to decrypt the encrypted event message.