Abstract: An operations center (OC) (200) acts as an intermediary for securely and reliably transmitting a document (3) from a sender (100) to a next recipient (300) on a routing list. The OC (200) identifies (464) a recipient (300) from the next stage of the routing list and provides either the recipient's public key (404) or an escrow encryption key (406). The OC (200) optionally can authenticate the sender (100) and/or the recipient (300), thus increasing security.

Abstract: A system for securely transmitting an information package (10) to an addressee via a network (108) includes a directory interface (110) adapted to check a directory (112) to determine whether the addressee has a public key; an escrow key manager (116), coupled to the directory interface (110), adapted to provide an escrow encryption key for encrypting the package (10); a encryption module (114), coupled to the escrow key manager (116), adapted to encrypt the package (10) with the escrow encryption key; a computer-readable medium (118), coupled to the encryption module (114), adapted to store the package (10) in escrow for the addressee; a notification module (120), coupled to the computer-readable medium (118), adapted to send a notification to the addressee via the network (108); a key registration module (124), coupled to the notification module (120), adapted to issue, in response to the addressee acknowledging the notification, new public and private keys to the addressee; and a transmission module (122),

Abstract: An Operations Center (OC) (200) acts as a central key manager and intermediary in securely, reliably and non-repudiably delivering a document (3) from a sender (100) to a recipient (300). The OC (200) acts as a key manager to facilitate the process of strong authentication of the sender (100) and the recipient (300), encryption of the delivery (510), and setup of reliable connections (2A, 2B, 2C). In a preferred embodiment, the reliable connections (2A, 2B, 2C) are virtual private network connections.