Patent ID: 7734051

Claim:
A method implemented in a computer-readable storage medium to execute on a device to perform the method, comprising: determining, by an identity service, to change a key used for communicating within a secure network, a policy evaluates entropy for usage of the key in response to a length of time that the key is in service and when the length of time is exceeded, according to the policy, the key is determined to need a change, and the length of time is resolved in response to factors that include a key length for the key, a total amount of network traffic that the key was used to encrypt that traffic, and repetitiveness of some of the network traffic; acquiring, by the identity service, the changed key; dynamically distributing and actively pushing, by the identity service, the changed key to one or more participants within the secure network for use with communications occurring within the secure network between the one or more participants; instructing, by the identity service, a particular participant to use the changed key after the particular participant attempts to log onto the secure network using the key, which has expired for the secure network, a login attempt is made by the particular participant to access the secure network via a wireless router; forwarding, by the wireless router, unrecognized traffic associated with the attempted login that is encrypted with the key, the wireless router unable to determine if the unrecognized traffic is legitimate and from an authorized participant or illegitimate and from an intruder, the wireless router forwarding the unrecognized traffic to the identity service; evaluating, by the identity service, the unrecognized traffic as being associated with an authorized participant that has not yet received the changed key; providing, by the identity service, the changed key back through the wireless router, which the wireless router still does not recognize because communication back to the authorized participant uses encryption that is still associated with the key; and implementing by the authorized participant the changed key to successfully log into the secure network via the wireless router, which now recognizes traffic provided by the authorized participant because that traffic is encrypted with the changed key that the wireless router is configured to use.