Method for a communication device to operate with multiple key management facilities

A method for operating with multiple key management facilities (KMF), the method comprising:

• at a communication device having a memory device:
• receiving a designation of a primary KMF for the communication device, wherein the communication device is configured to act on key management commands from the primary KMF regardless of a registration state of the communication device with the primary KMF, wherein only one primary KMF is designated for the communication device at any given time instance;
• receiving a designation of a secondary KMF for the communication device;
• storing, within the memory device, a first and a second set of crypto groups, wherein each crypto group within each set of crypto groups comprises at least one keyset, wherein each set of crypto groups is associated, within the memory device, to only one KMF identifier;
• associating, within the memory device, the first set of crypto groups to an identifier for the primary KMF;
• associating, within the memory device, the second set of crypto groups to an identifier for the secondary KMF;
• receiving a zeroize command from the secondary KMF;
• determining a configuration option setting for the communication device for acting on the zeroize command sent from the secondary KMF;
• depending on the configuration option setting, acting on the zeroize command by either deleting each key in each keyset in both the first and second sets of crypto groups or only deleting each key in the keysets of the second set of crypto groups;
• receiving a non-zeroize key management command from the primary KMF;
• performing an action only on the first set of crypto groups and not on the second set of crypto groups in response to the non-zeroize key management command;
• receiving a non-zeroize key management command from the secondary KMF;
• and
• performing an action only on the second set of crypto groups and not on the first set of crypto groups in response to the non-zeroize key management command.