Patent ID: 8650389

Claim:
An active traffic management apparatus, comprising: a processor configured to execute program instructions stored in a memory comprising: obtaining a security value from an internal value source; deriving a key from the received security value, the deriving comprising extracting at least a portion of the security value for use as the key or applying a function to at least a portion of the security value to generate the key; conducting encrypted communications in a session with the network device using the derived key derived from the security value, the conducting comprising initiating the encrypted communications with the network device by transmitting the key to the network device in a secure sockets layer (SSL) protocol handshake, conducting the encrypted communications according to the SSL protocol, and transmitting the key to the network device using public key infrastructure (PKI) encryption; and sharing at least one of the key or the security value with a backup traffic management apparatus configured to mirror the encrypted communications with the network device based on the key and continue to conduct the encrypted communications for the session with the network device using the key when the active traffic management device is unable to conduct the encrypted communications with the network device.