Patent ID: 7757099

Claim:
A method, comprising: maintaining, via a processor, an encryption key file, wherein data is capable of being encrypted and decrypted using an encryption key included in the encryption key file; writing, in a forward direction, a first copy of the encryption key file to a first key location on a removable storage media; writing, in a reverse direction, a second copy of the encryption key file to a second key location of the removable storage media in which the first copy of the encryption key file was written in the forward direction; performing a validation operation on the first copy of the encryption key file written at the first key location; in response to the first copy of the encryption key file not validating, performing the validation operation on the second copy of the encryption key file written to the second key location; and in response to the second copy of the encryption key file written to the second key location validating, performing cryptographic operations with the encryption key included in the second copy of the encryption key file.