System preventing undersirable manipulations on an electronic memory

Methods and apparatus for preventing tampering with memory in an electronic device, such as a cellular telephone, are disclosed. An electronic device having a memory and a processing means contains logic that is used to perform a one-way hash calculation on the device's memory contents whereby an audit hash value, or signature, of such contents is derived. The audit hash value si compared to an authenticated valid hash value derived from authentic memory contents. A difference between the audit and valid hash values can be indicative of memory tampering. In accordance with another aspect of the invention, electronic device memory contents can be updated by a data transfer device that is authenticated before being permitted access to the memory contents. Data transfer device authentication involves the use of a public/private key encryption scheme. When the data transfer device interfaces with an electronic device and requests memory access, a process to authenticate the data transfer device is initiated.