Patent ID: 8060750

Claim:
A method for use in secure seed provisioning, the method comprising the steps of: deriving, by an authentication device, data from an inherent source of randomness in the authentication device; based on the data, provisioning, by the authentication device, the authentication device with a seed; preventing, by the authentication device, direct external exposure of the seed during the lifetime of the authentication device; and receiving, by the authentication device and from a programming station, a configuration command to provision the authentication device with the seed, the authentication device being provisioned with the seed in response to the configuration command; wherein deriving the data from an inherent source of randomness in the authentication device includes: generating, by a processor of the authentication device, the data based on a counter value which represents an amount of time between (i) when a battery of the authentication device is connected to the processor and (ii) when the configuration command is received from the programming station.