Bank of America Corporation
Method and apparatus for perfect forward secrecy using deterministic hierarchy

Abstract:

Method and apparatus for a system to communicate via perfect forward secrecy. A deterministic hierarchy is used to generate public and private keys, offline, on distinct devices, for use with asymmetrical cryptography over an unsecure medium. Because each private key is not transmitted over the unsecure medium, but must be used to de-encrypt the communications, it is very difficult for man-in-the-middle attacks to de-encrypt the communications. Because each private key is generated according to a deterministic hierarchy, a master entity can recreate the private keys and passively monitor the communications while maintaining perfect forward secrecy.