Dongle for ciphering data

A system for securely communicating data between users, each user is located at an external device, the system comprising:

• more than one dongles, wherein each dongle shares a common encryption key,
• wherein each dongle is configured to cipher, receive and transmit data to and from the external device, and
• wherein each dongle comprises:
• a user interface configured to receive authentication data to confirm an identity of a user, wherein the dongle is disabled for ciphering data unless an authorised user is identified;
• a data transfer channel configured to couple the dongle to the external device to receive and transmit user data between the dongle and the external device;
• and
• a hardware encryption engine configured to perform a ciphering transformation on user data received from the external device;
• wherein the dongle is configured to perform a return transmission to return the user data that has been transformed to the external device via the data transfer channel in real-time using a single data transfer channel without storage of the user data on the dongle.

A method of ciphering data using a dongle comprising:

• receiving authentication data for confirming an identity of a user via a user interface;
• verifying the authentication data against stored data for authorised users;
• permitting access to the ciphering function of the dongle upon verification of the authentication data;
• transmitting data from an external device to the dongle via a data transfer interface;
• performing a ciphering transformation at the dongle using a hardware encryption engine;
• and
• returning the transformed data from the dongle to the external device via the data transfer interface.

A non-transitory machine-readable medium having stored thereon instructions for performing a method comprising machine executable code that when executed by at least one machine, causes the machine to:

• receive authentication data for confirming an identity of a user via a user interface;
• verify the authentication data against stored data for authorised users;
• permit access to the ciphering function of a dongle upon verification of the authentication data;
• transmit data from an external device to the dongle via a data transfer interface;
• perform a ciphering transformation at the dongle using a hardware encryption engine;
• and
• return the transformed data from the dongle to the external device via the data transfer interface.

A method of sharing data securely between authorised computing devices, the method comprising:

• encrypting first data using a first dongle with master keying material stored in the first dongle, wherein a first computing device is connected to the first dongle;
• transferring the first data that is encrypted to a second computing device, wherein the second computing device is connected to a second dongle;
• decrypting the first data that is encrypted using the second dongle;
• and
• transferring first data that is unencrypted from the second dongle to the second computing device,
• wherein the first and second dongles include common encryption keying material.

A method of manufacturing a dongle comprising:

• connecting a master dongle and a slave dongle to a data transfer system;
• transferring a slave dongle's public key to the master dongle via the data transfer system;
• using the slave dongle's public key at the master dongle to encrypt the master keying material and produce encrypted master keying material at the master dongle;
• transferring the encrypted master keying material to the slave dongle via the data transfer system;
• decrypting the encrypted master keying material with the slave dongle's private key at the slave dongle;
• and
• storing the master keying material at the slave dongle.