US Patent 7900060 Method and system for securing a disk key

In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, a trusted client includes a non-volatile memory programmed with an encrypted disk key. The encrypted disk key in the non-volatile memory is encrypted with a master key of a security processor. Accordingly, encrypted data received by the central processor from a disk's security logic is forwarded to a security processor along with the encrypted disk key. The security processor decrypts the encrypted disk key and then decrypts the encrypted data, utilizing the disk key. The disk key is never available to the central processing unit in the clear.