US Patent 11962696 Encryption key removal tool

Systems and methods are described for removing unused encryption key files from a computing device. In an example, a key removal tool can identify three sets of keys to preserve. For the first set, the key removal tool can append a device identifier to known key names and add the resulting key file names to a whitelist. For the second set, the key removal tool can identify keys associated with certificates on the computing device and add their corresponding file names to the whitelist. The third set can correspond to keys created after a cutoff timestamp. The key removal tool can delete all key files with key file names not on the whitelist that were created before the cutoff timestamp.