Multiple level public key hierarchy for performance and high security

Multiple public/private key pairs of varying levels of security are used to provide a high level of security while still allowing fast processing of encrypted information. The lower-security level includes keys which are small in length, which are changed relatively often, and which require less or fewer resources to implement their functions (130), (134). When it is required to change key pairs of low security, a key pair at a higher security level (i.e, longer length keys) than the lower-security level keys is used to transfer the new lower-security public keys to devices using those keys. The higher-security keys can, in turn, be changed at a frequency lower than the lower-security keys. The higher-security keys require a higher level of resources to perform their coding operations (120), (124). This approach of using keys of escalating levels of security to replace lower-security keys, where the higher-security keys require more resources, are more secure, and are replaced less often than the lower-security keys, can be followed as many times as is desired to create a hierarchy of public key uses with the result that the lower-security operations can be performed quickly while the overall system security is high.