Patent ID: 7565528

Claim:
A method for generating, personalizing, and certifying an asymmetrical cryptokey in accordance with one of an operation performed at a central, secure location corresponding to a trust center and an operation performed at a user location in cooperation with the trust center using a secure transmission between a user and the trust center, the method comprising the steps of: causing the trust center to provide the user with a previously generated, personalized, and certified signature key pair, and with components for producing at least one encryption key pair; producing by the user the at least one encryption key pair including a public part and a secret part; marking the public part of the at least one encryption key pair using an assigned secret part of the previously generated signature key pair; after marking the public part of the at least one encryption key pair, transmitting the at least one encryption key pair to the trust center; unequivocally assigning the at least one encryption key pair to the user; causing the trust center to check the unequivocal assignment of the at least one encryption key pair by using a public part of the previously generated signature key pair; after the check of the unequivocal assignment is performed successfully, causing the trust center to produce a new certificate by using at least one of the public part of the previously generated signature key pair and the public part of the at least one encryption key pair; encrypting the new certificate using the public part of the at least one encryption key pair; and causing the trust center to transmit the encrypted new certificate to the user.