Method and system for implementing and managing an enterprise identity management for distributed security

• US 20040139081A1
• Filed: 12/31/2002
• Published: 07/15/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 12/31/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Liberty Peak Ventures, LLC (Dominion Harbor Enterprises, LLC), General Counsel's Office
• Original Assignee: American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc. (American Express Company)
• Inventors: Glazer, Elliott, Bishop, Fred, Armes, David, Barrett, Michael Richard, Steitz, Philip W., Gibbons, Stephen P., Shelby, James
• Granted Patent: US 7,143,095 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/34 involving the use of external additional devices, e.g. dongles or smart cards
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing

Abstract

An Enterprise Identity Management system includes a registration component, an ownership component, and an audit component. The registration component is configured to associate a user ID with specific accounts that are accessible via a computer system. The ownership component is configured to verify the ownership of the accounts. The audit component is configured to perform periodic checks to ensure the validity of the association between the user ID and the ownership of the accounts.

Claims

1. A computing system for managing user identities comprising:

a registration component configured to gather information from users and establish a relationship between a user and an identity;

an ownership component configured to verify the ownership of an account and to relate said ownership to said identity;

an audit component configured to periodically monitor said account and said identity to verify the integrity of the relationship.

2. The computing system of claim 1 wherein:

said ownership component is further configured to generate means for confirming the ownership of an account.

3. The computing system of claim 2 wherein said means for confirming ownership of an account includes:

analyzing ownership data; and

generating questions to be asked of a user to verify the identity of said user

4. A method for issuing computerized identities associated with accounts comprising:

receiving a request for a computerized identity;

transmitting said request to an ownership component;

determining existing methods used to authenticate users for the requested account type;

generating questions to be asked of the user; and

issuing the identity to the user provided that said questions were correctly answered.

5. A method of maintaining relationships between a user identity and an account related to said user identity comprising:

assigning a positive weight for a successful transaction by the user identity on said account;

assigning a negative weight for an unsuccessful transaction by the user identity on said account; and

aggregating said positive and negative weights to determine the usage history of a user identity.

6. The method of claim 5 further comprising:

evaluating a current transaction being made by a user identity;

comparing said transaction to previous transactions performed by said user identity;

assigning a positive weight for a similar transaction by the user identity;

assigning a negative weight for an non-similar transaction by the user identity.

7. The method of claim 5 further comprising:

analyzing said aggregation of positive weights and negative weights to determine the validity of the user identification; and

removing a relationship between said user identification and said account in the event that said analyzing step fails to reach a predetermined criteria.