A method for securely provisioning a device for operation within a service
provider infrastructure over an open network comprises the device
establishing physical and data link layer network connections for
communication on at least a subnet of the open network and obtaining a
network configuration data such as an IP address and a subnet mask from a
provisioning server that responds to a network configuration broadcast
request. A device establishes a secure hypertext transport protocol
connection to a first provisioning server that corresponds to one of: i)
and IP address and port number; and ii) a fully qualified domain name
stored in a non-volatile memory of the device. After mutual
authentication, the first provisioning server provides at least one of:
i) a configuration file; and ii) identification of a second provisioning
server and a cipher key through the secure connection. If the first
provisioning server provided identification of a second provisioning
server, the device establishes a transport connection to the identified
second provisioning server. The second provisioning server provides an
encrypted file which, when decrypted using the cipher key yields the
configuration information needed by the device for operation with the
service provider infrastructure.