Patent ID: 8843740

Claim:
A method to be performed by a first device, the method comprising: creating for the first device a root certificate that binds an identity of the first device to a long-term public key of the first device and that indicates that the root certificate is to be used for verifying digital signatures of derived certificates, the root certificate digitally signed using a long-term private key of the first device; making the root certificate available to a second device in any trusted manner; acquiring one or more short-term identities of the first device, wherein the one or more short-term identities comprise one or more network addresses; generating a short-term public/private key pair consisting of a short-term public key of the first device and a short-term private key of the first device; creating for the first device a derived certificate that binds at least one of the one or more short-term identities of the first device to the short-term public key of the first device, the derived certificate digitally signed using the long-term private key of the first device; and sending the derived certificate to the second device, wherein the long-term public key of the first device and the long-term private key of the first device form a long-term public/private key pair of the first device.