It will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art that the cabinet lock illustrated herein is but one of numerous types of passive security devices 40 that can be configured to be operated by a programmable electronic key 20 according to the present invention. In any of the aforementioned embodiments, the security device 40 may further comprise an electronic lock mechanism, such as a conventional proximity, limit or contact switch, including an associated monitoring circuit that activates an alarm in response to the switch being actuated or the integrity of a sense loop monitored by the monitoring circuit being compromised. In such embodiments the security device 40 comprises a logic control circuit, or the equivalent, including a memory for storing a SDC, and a communication system for initially receiving the SDC from the security key 20 and subsequently communicating with the key to authenticate the SDC of the key.