Patent ID: 7117376

Claim:
A method comprising: loading a Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) code including a first BIOS area and a second BIOS area, the first BIOS area being a first segment of the BIOS code encrypted with a keying material stored within an internal memory of a trusted platform module of a platform and the second BIOS area being a second segment of the BIOS code encrypted with a combination key; loading an integrity metric including a hash value of an identification information of the platform; authenticating a user of the platform during a BIOS boot process; releasing a first keying material from a token communicatively coupled to the platform after authenticating the user during the BIOS boot process; combining the first keying material with a second keying material internally stored within the platform in order to produce a combination key during the BIOS boot process; and using the combination key to decrypt a second BIOS area to recover a second segment of BIOS code during the BIOS boot process.