Patent ID: 7822206

Claim:
An encryption key management system, comprising: a key manager to determine when an application program requesting one or more keys is authorized to receive the one or more keys and to produce a map of the one or more keys, wherein the key manager is responsive to a request from the application program for all keys in a key set or a key set group to produce a map of all keys in the key set or the key set group, respectively, and the key manager is responsive to a request for latest versions of keys in the key set or key set group to produce a map of the latest versions of keys in the key set or the key set group, respectively, wherein the map of all keys comprises a map with the latest versions of keys and earlier versions of keys and wherein the latest versions of keys comprises versions of keys last generated at a scheduled key generation event, wherein the key manager is to determine whether the application program is within a scope specified for the key set, the scope being the scope of authorized access to the key set, wherein determining whether the application program is within the scope specified for the key set comprises determining whether the application program is associated with a grouping that is associated with the key set; a key scheduler to schedule at least one key generation event at a pre-determinable time; a key generator to generate at least one key of the one or more keys at a scheduled key generation event wherein keys generated by the key generator are associated with a key set and a key set group and wherein the key set comprises one or more keys and the key set group comprises one or more key sets; and a key store comprising memory to store the at least one key along with attributes of the at least one key so that each key is associated with a set of attributes of the key.