A method and system of establishing a short-range wireless communications connection between a host device and a client device, wherein the host device includes a host certificate and a host key, the method including the steps of: transmitting an advertisement using a short-range wireless communications (SRWC) protocol from the host device to the client device; receiving a connection request message from the client device; receiving a client device verification message, wherein the client device verification message includes an encrypted client certificate, wherein the encrypted client certificate is a certificate that is encrypted using a client key; decrypting the encrypted certificate using the host key to obtain the client certificate; verifying the client certificate using the host certificate; generating a shared secret; encrypting the shared secret using the host key; and sending the encrypted shared secret to the client device.