Patent ID: 8296575

Claim:
A method for protecting, an electronic communication device having an operational unit and a user-specific module, comprising storing, at a time prior to a first use of the electronic communication device by a user associated with the user-specific module, a checking program for checking the user-specific module in the operational unit, the checking program being used to check compatibility of the user-specific module with the operational unit; protecting, at the time prior to the first use of the device, the checking program with a key of an encryption method for use by a protection performer; and storing, at the time prior to the first use of the device, in the operational unit, a verification key of the encryption method used by the protection performer for verifying the authenticity of the checking program so that the authenticity of the checking program can be verified before being used for checking the compatibility of the user-specific module with the operational unit making altering of the checking program and unauthorized use of the electronic communication device more difficult.