US Patent 10003465 System and method of encrypting authentication information

Embodiments herein provide, for example, a method that includes generating a shared symmetric key to exchange authentication information among a communications group; distributing the generated shared symmetric key to each communicating party in the communications group; exchanging authentication information among members of the communications group, where each communicating party: encrypts the authentication information using the generated shared symmetric key and sends the encrypted authentication information to other members of the communications group, and receives encrypted authentication information from another communicating party in the communications groups and decrypts the received encrypted authentication information using the generated shared symmetric key.