Patent ID: 7065643

Claim:
A method of excising a compromised node from a community of nodes capable of information sharing comprising: for each group in a plurality of top tier groups in a top level tier, encrypting a new traffic encryption key using a top tier-group specific key encryption key, wherein the plurality of top tier groups excludes a group that includes the compromised node; broadcasting the new traffic encryption key to each of the plurality of top tier groups in the top level tier; and within the group that includes the compromised node, recursively broadcasting the new traffic encryption key to groups of nodes at a succession of lower tiers, until the compromised node is excised, wherein recursively broadcasting comprises: for each of the groups of nodes in the succession of lower tiers, each of the groups of nodes excluding a lower tier group that includes the compromised node, encrypting the new traffic encryption key using a lower tier-group specific key encryption key.