Patent ID: 8843764

Claim:
A method for authenticating and associating a program code with an equipment, the method comprising: associating critical security information with an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) of the equipment by encrypting the critical security information using a unique secret value, the unique secret value identifying the OEM of the equipment associated with the critical security information, the critical security information programmed in a memory during equipment manufacturing, the critical security information including a device authentication key, a redundant device authentication key, a chip encryption key, and one or more image authentication keys; loading critical security information associated with the OEM of the equipment from the memory at an initial startup time; retrieving the chip encryption key and the one or more image authentication keys stored in the critical security information associated with the OEM of the equipment in the memory by decrypting the critical security information using the unique secret value; authenticating the program code using the chip encryption key and the one or more image authentication keys; and transferring ownership of the equipment to a new owner by updating at least one of the device authentication key of the critical security information and the redundant device authentication key of the critical security information with at least one public key of the new owner.