Patent ID: 8745386

Claim:
A single-use authentication method for accessing encrypted data stored on a protected volume of a first computer, comprising: generating and distributing a key protector by encrypting a volume-specific cryptographic key needed to decrypt the encrypted data stored on the protected volume with a public key of a randomly-generated asymmetric public and private key pair wherein the public key is distributed with a key protector identifier and key protector attributes; storing the key protector in local memory of the first computer wherein the key protector is stored along with an indicator that indicates the key protector is a single-use key protector; and responsive to detecting an attempt to access the protected volume, performing the following steps: obtaining the private key; decrypting the key protector using the private key to obtain the volume-specific cryptographic key; determining, based on the indicator stored along with the key protector, whether the key protector is a single-use key protector; and deleting the key protector from the local memory of the first computer after the single use thereof when the indicator stored along with the key protector indicates the key protector is a single-use key protector.