Patent attributes
A game console determines if a hard disk drive is authorized for use with the game console by analyzing an encrypted certificate. The encrypted certificate is stored in memory of the drive. Upon detection of the drive, the game console receives the encrypted certificate and decrypts it. The certificate contains parameters relating to the drive, such as the drives serial number, model number, memory capacity of the drive, and a trademark indicative of the drive's authenticity, for example. The game console also receives these parameters from the drive in unencrypted form. The parameters extracted from the encrypted certificate are compared with the parameters read from the hard disk drive's memory. If the parameters match, the drive is determined to be authentic. The certificate is encrypted with the private key of a public-private key pair and decrypted with the corresponding public key in accordance with well known public-key cryptographic techniques.
