The offline consumption and publication of protected information in a networked environment. The offline consumption of protected information is accomplished by having the consuming user maintain a store of asymmetric encryption keys. The protected information is encrypted by the publishing user using a symmetric key and the symmetric key is then encrypted using a public asymmetric key associated with the consuming user. The consuming user received the protected information and a usage policy containing the encrypted symmetric key. The consuming user verifies that it can decrypt the symmetric key using a private asymmetric key maintained by the consumer. The user then decrypts the symmetric key and accesses the content of the protected information.