WO2008008243A3 - Control system and method using identity objects - Google Patents

Abstract

An object known as an identity object comprises a public key and a private key pair and at least one certificate issued by a certificate authority that certifies that the public key of the pair is genuine. This object may be used as proof of identification by using the private key to sign data provided to it or signals derived from the data. An identity object may be stored in a non-volatile memory as proof of identity. The memory is controlled by a controller. Preferably, a housing encloses the memory and the controller. The memory system is removably connected to a host device. After the host device has been successfully authenticated, the private key of the object is used to encrypt data from the host device or signals derived from said data, and the at least one certificate and the encrypted data or signals are sent to the host device. After an entity has been authenticated by a control data structure of the memory system, the public key of the identity object and the at least one certificate to certify the public key are provided to the entity. If encrypted data encrypted by means of the public key of the identity object is received from the entity, the memory system will then be able to decrypt the encrypted data using the private key in the identity object.