Patent ID: 8127143

Claim:
A method, comprising: verifying, at a personal identification device, a validity of an enrollment authority based on an encrypted verification string associated with the enrollment authority, the verifying including comparing a decrypted verification string and an unencrypted verification string such that the validity of the enrollment authority is verified when the decrypted verification string matches the unencrypted verification string, the decrypted verification string being produced by the personal identification device based on the encrypted verification string and a public key associated with the enrollment authority; sending from the personal identification device an encrypted session key to the enrollment authority when the validity of the enrollment authority is verified; downloading, at the personal identification device, biometric data encrypted using the encrypted session key after the sending and when the validity of the enrollment authority is verified; and storing, only at the personal identification device, the biometric data after the receiving such that the biometric data is prevented from being transmitted from the personal identification device after the storing.