METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CREATING A SECURE AUTONOMOUS NETWORK ENTITY OF A NETWORK COMPONENT SYSTEM

A technique is provided for creating an autonomous network entity that stores sensitive information in a cryptographically secure manner. The autonomous entity comprises a data structure that encapsulates cryptographically-transformed information along with the inputs of a secret key used to reverse the transformation. Cryptographic storage of the sensitive information and its reversable key within the encapsulated entity makes the entity autonomous and capable of transfer among computer platforms and their processes without compromising the security of the information.