Patent ID: 8737623

Claim:
A method for remotely loading encryption keys into a card reader system, the method comprising: storing, at a card reader, a device identification number for identifying the card reader, a first magnetic fingerprint of a data card, and a second magnetic fingerprint of the data card, wherein each of the first and second magnetic fingerprints comprises an intrinsic magnetic characteristic of the data card and was previously obtained from a reading of a magnetic stripe of the data card; generating a first encryption key derived from the second magnetic fingerprint; encrypting, using the first encryption key, first information comprising the device identification number and the first magnetic fingerprint; sending the encrypted first information to an authentication server, wherein the authentication server was previously seeded with the device identification number, the first magnetic fingerprint, and the second magnetic fingerprint; receiving, from the authentication server, a score indicative of a degree of correlation between the first magnetic fingerprint and the second magnetic fingerprint; and receiving, when the score is above a preselected threshold, a second encryption key from the authentication server, the second encryption key encrypted using a third encryption key derived from the first magnetic fingerprint.