Patent ID: 8325914

Claim:
An apparatus, comprising: a wireless system comprising a hardware processor configured to communicate with a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag via at least one wireless access point; wherein the wireless system is configured to assign an identifier for the RFID tag during an initial communication session; wherein the wireless system hardware processor is configured to generate an announce mode key for the RFID tag, the announce mode key is derived from the assigned identifier for the RFID tag and a master key; wherein the wireless system hardware processor is configured to send the announce mode key and the assigned identifier for the RFID tag to the RFID tag; wherein the wireless system hardware processor discards the announce mode key upon sending the announce mode key to the RFID tag; wherein the wireless system hardware processor receives a message and an identifier for the RFID tag from the RFID tag; wherein the wireless system hardware processor regenerates the announce mode key employing the master key and the identifier for the RFID tag received from the RFID tag; and wherein the wireless control hardware processor employs the regenerated announce mode key to decrypt the message.