Methods and devices are provided for applying a ciphering configuration in a wireless communication network. The method includes initiating an entity reset procedure by a first entity in the wireless communication network; synchronizing Hyper Frame Numbers (HFNs) associated with the first entity and a second entity, respectively, during the entity reset procedure; and applying a new ciphering configuration by the first entity and the second entity, upon completing the entity reset procedure, without updating the synchronized HFNs associated with the first entity and the second network, respectively.