The public Internet is the world's largest system of inter-networked
computers. Adequate security means for protecting sensitive data
communicated over the Internet is not, however, provided. The present
invention, therefore, provides a system and method for performing secure
transactions over an insecure packet-switched communication network. This
is achieved by interconnecting a number of master nodes over the insecure
communication network. The master nodes are capable of transmitting
encrypted data packets over the insecure network via pseudo-random
communication paths. The master nodes are further capable of returning to
any state in a secure transaction in the event of a network failure. The
master nodes are also capable of using new keys to encrypt each data
packet.
