EFFICIENT MULTIPARTY KEY EXCHANGE

A system for providing secure communications includes a telecommunications network. The system includes N nodes and a new node in communication with the network to form a session, where N is greater than or equal to three and is an integer. Each node has media streams, and a unique cryptographic media key for each media stream which each node sends to every other node of the session over the telecommunications network. One of the N nodes is a key master which distributes a master key to every other node in the session over the network. Each node encrypts with its own respective media key and the master key each of its media streams. When the new node first joins the session, the new node sends its unique cryptographic media keys for each of its media streams to the N nodes of the session. The key master then generates a new master key with the media keys of the new node and distributes the new master key to the new node and the N nodes using only a single signalling message to each of the N nodes and the new node without any other signalling messages to establish secure communications between the new node and the N nodes in the session. A method for providing secure communications.