Methods and systems for providing and controlling cryptographically secure communications across unsecured networks between a secure virtual terminal and a remote system

摘要

Methods and systems for securely connecting a client computer having a secure boot device to a remote server over a communications network are disclosed. One method includes booting a client computer from a trusted set of processing modules stored in the secure boot device, verifying the contents of the trusted set of processing modules prior to execution of these processing modules, and providing authentication information from data stored upon the secure boot device to an authentication server to establish a secure connection to the remote server. The method also includes establishing the secure connection with the remote server using encryption keys stored on the secure boot device, and transferring data between the client computer and the remote server over the secure connection to perform transactions initiated by a user of the client computer. In the disclosed method, the remote server utilizes encryption keys associated with a unique ID from the secure boot device.