Patent ID: 8635446

Claim:
A distributed cryptographic management system implemented across a network, comprising: a central key management service accessible through the network and having a database associated therewith; an approval module, executed by a computing device, programmed to receive approval for any of client machines connectable to the network and applications associated with the client machines, the database storing records for the client machines, and a key management domain being defined by all approved client machines and applications; an agent module programmed to provide key management agents, wherein the key management agents are transferable and installable on any of the approved client machines and applications within the key management domain; one or more domain registrars programmed to pre-authorize or post-authorize subscribing client machines or applications to join the key management domain, wherein the domain registrars have access to approve and manage client machines or applications within a defined sub-domain of the key management domain; an online enrollment form accessible through the network for input of any of client machine profiling, application profiling, and agent profiling for any of keys and certificates to be allowed for the allowed client machine or application; a presentation module programmed to present the collected status data to any of registrars and administrators; and an alert module programmed to send alerts associated with the collected status data to any of help desks and monitoring centers accessible through the network.