Postage meter having electronic access control security

摘要

A postage meter which can be accessed and reset electrically through use of a two-part coded password sent by a postal employee to a meter manufacturer and an encrypted security code sent by the meter manufacturer to the postal employee for use in putting the postal meter in a reset mode for resetting postage registers in the meter. Enhanced security is realized by the meter manufacturer validating the first part of the password as identifying an authorized postal employee and/or post office station and the second part as associated with a legitimate meter and then issuing the encrypted security code to the postal employee for resetting the meter. The encrypted security code is based on a variable amount of credit with which a register of the meter is to be reset and the security code input to the meter is compared with a corresponding code generated by the meter based on an input of the variable credit amount to ensure that the meter is reset with an authorized credit amount.