A method of securing wireless communications includes storing a recipient's micro-certificate at a vehicle, a call center, or a certificate authority, transmitting the micro-certificate from its place of storage, extracting the public key from the micro-certificate, encrypting the vehicle communication using the public key, transmitting the encrypted vehicle communication to the recipient, and decrypting the vehicle communication using a private key after receiving the vehicle communication. The micro-certificate can include identifying data for the recipient and can have a length that is less than twice the length of the public key contained in the micro-certificate.