Abstract: A system and method for managing cryptographic keys on a recipient system. A key ring file is opened on the recipient system and at least a recipient private key of a cryptographic key pair associated with a particular entity is received. The recipient private key is saved in the key ring file such that the key is identifiably associated with the entity.

Abstract: A method for secure electronic information exchange between a sender and a recipient. The method includes generating a message at a first entity, generating a message encryption key, encrypting the message using the message encryption key, wrapping the message encryption key using a key agreement algorithm, generating a Java archive file including the encrypted message, the wrapped message encryption key and cryptographic algorithm code including decryption algorithm and key agreement algorithm code, encoding the Java archive file, embedding the encoded Java archive file in an HTML file, and sending the HTML file as an e-mail attachment to said recipient.