Abstract: Methods and apparatus for securely transmitting sensitive information to a remote device at the request of an application program are provided. The application program generates a request to a secure channel provider to make a transmission to a remote device. A first message is passed from the from the application program to the secure channel provider containing insertion point codes indicating locations within the first message where the sensitive information should be inserted. Sensitive information is obtained from a source outside of the application program and the sensitive information is inserted into the first message at the locations in the first message indicated by the insertion point codes to form a second message containing the sensitive information. The second message is encrypted and this encrypted message is transmitted to the remote device. The sensitive information is unaccessed by the application program during the execution of the method.

Abstract: A system, peripheral device, and method for authenticating an encryption key before transmitting encrypted messages containing sensitive information are provided. Authentication of a client device during the coordination of data transfer among multiple computer devices is possible by providing a peripheral device that does not have a direct connection to a network, but rather, any message to be transmitted over the network must be relayed through a client device. Any sensitive information to be transferred to a remote device is inserted into a message, then the message is encrypted in the peripheral device. This prevents any process running on the client device from fooling the client device into communicating confidential information to a third party rather than the desired remote computer, because the client device never sees the sensitive information in an unencrypted form; only the peripheral device has access to the sensitive information in an unencrypted form.