Patent ID: 8532300

Claim:
A method of managing distribution of a symmetric encryption key in a computer system having a plurality of computers including at least a first computer, a second computer and a third computer, the method comprising: generating and storing a symmetric encryption key in unencrypted format; distributing the unencrypted symmetric encryption key in parallel to the plurality of computers; encrypting the unencrypted symmetric encryption key with the first computer using a first encryption technique based on an identification of the first computer to obtain a first encrypted version of the symmetric encryption key based on an identification of the first computer; storing the first encrypted version of the symmetric encryption key by the first computer; encrypting the unencrypted symmetric encryption key with the second computer using a second encryption technique based on an identification of the second computer to obtain a second encrypted version of the symmetric encryption key based on an identification of the first computer, the second encryption technique being different from the first encryption technique so that the second encrypted version is different from the first encrypted version; storing the second encrypted version of the symmetric encryption key by the second computer; encrypting the unencrypted symmetric encryption key with the third computer using a third encryption technique based on an identification of the third computer to obtain a third encrypted version of the symmetric encryption key based on an identification of the third computer, the third encrypted version and the first and second encrypted versions collectively forming a plurality of encrypted versions wherein no two of the plurality of encrypted versions are identical; storing a unique one of the third encrypted version of the symmetric encryption key by the third computer; and using the first encrypted version of the symmetric encryption key at the first computer, the second encrypted version of the symmetric encryption key at the second computer and the third encrypted version of the symmetric encryption key at the third computer to encrypt or decrypt data.