Patent ID: 7958354

Claim:
A computer implemented method for communicating common secret data within a computer system having a set of entities, said set of entities comprising at least one trusted entity and a plurality of partner communicator entities, said plurality of potential partner communicator entities being provided with a public certificate and a private key, wherein a subset of said plurality of partner communicator entities attempt to join together to compromise said computer system, said computer implemented method of communicating, comprising the steps of: a) providing a computer system having a non-trusted communications channel, and a trusted communications channel; b) determining a maximum number of potential partner communicator entities in said computer system, said maximum number of said potential partner communicator entities being denoted as η; c) generating a common secret data component, denoted as ω; d) building an equation based upon said maximum number of said potential partner communicator entities η in said system, wherein said common secret data component, ω, is part of said equation, and said equation is based upon η+1 variables; e) generating a special ‘public’ ordered data set, denoted as ρ, for one trusted entity from said equation for later distribution to said plurality of potential partner communicator entities; f) communicating said special ‘public’ ordered data set ρ over said trusted communications channel to said trusted entity; g) generating a unique ordered data set, denoted as λ i for each of said potential partner communicator entities in said system from said equation, where i=0, 1, . . . η−1; h) communicating said λ i unique ordered data sets to said corresponding potential partner communicator entity using said trusted communications channel; i) communicating said special ordered data set ρ using said non-trusted communications channel from said trusted entity to each of said plurality of potential partner communicator entities requiring said common secret data component ω; and, j) using a combination of said special ordered data set ρ and said unique ordered data set λ i to calculate said common secret data ω from the information communicated by λ i and ρ.