Wireless device having a secure clock authentication method and apparatus

A method of providing a secure clock in a communication device in contact with a communication system, comprising:

• providing, in the communication device, real-time clock hardware, including a real time clock count register, programmable memory and non-volatile memory, and a back-up battery, and which further includes providing a battery fail register which provides a Boolean true/false value for indicating whether the supply current to the real time clock has failed;
• a user interface clock base for holding a time and date value which is set by the user;
• a secure clock base for holding a time and date value set by either the communication system or the user;
• a secure clock offset;
• and a secure clock initializer for indicating whether the time and date value in the secure clock variable has been initialized to a time and date other than a default time and date;
• detecting a clock event whenever a clock event occurs;
• wherein a clock event is taken from a group of clock events consisting of user clock events and system clock events;
• initializing a secure clock base, setting a secure clock flag to TRUE, and determining a secure clock offset;
• and
• setting the secure clock to a secure clock time as a function of the secure clock base and the RTC clock count register less the secure clock offset, wherein said computing further includes setting the real-time clock count register to zero and setting the secure clock offset to zero, respectively.

A secure clock mechanism for use in a communication device which is in contact with a communication system, comprising:

• real-time clock hardware, including a battery fail register which provides a Boolean true/false value for indicating whether the supply current to the real time clock has failed, and a clock count register;
• programmable memory and non-volatile memory, including a user interface clock base for holding a time and date value which is set by the user, a secure clock base for holding a time and date value set by either the communication system or the user, a secure clock offset, and a secure clock initializer for indicating whether the time and date value in the secure clock variable has been initialized to a time and date other than a default time and date;
• a back-up battery for powering the secure clock mechanism;
• a clock event detection mechanism for detecting clock events, which are taken from a group of clock events consisting of user clock events and system clock events;
• a secure clock initializing mechanism for setting the secure clock and for setting a secure clock flag to TRUE;
• and
• a secure clock setting mechanism for setting the secure clock to a secure clock time, which includes setting a real-time clock count register to zero and setting a secure clock offset to zero.