Method and system for phone-number discovery and phone-number authentication for mobile communications devices

• US 20070249375A1
• Filed: 04/02/2007
• Published: 10/25/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: RPX Corporation
• Original Assignee: Ontela Incorporated (The Walt Disney Company)
• Inventors: Shapiro, Daniel, Zapata, Charles
• Granted Patent: US 7,610,056 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/466
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0428 wherein the data content is protected, e.g. by encrypting or encapsulating the payload
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/033 of the user plane, e.g. user's traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/06 Authentication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/10 Integrity
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/00 Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/14 Short messaging services, e.g. short message services [SMS] or unstructured supplementary service data [USSD]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/02 Terminal devices

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention are directed to methods and systems by which a client application program running on a mobile communications device can determine the telephone number associated with the mobile communications device and communicate the telephone number to a remote computing entity in a secure and verifiable fashion. In one embodiment of the present invention, a client application program running on a mobile communications device sends an SMS message to a remote server, allowing the remote server to determine the telephone number associated with the mobile communications device and return the determined telephone number to the client application program in a SMS response message. In another embodiment of the present invention, a client application program running on a mobile communications device can prove to a remote computing entity that the client application'"'"'s program is running on a mobile communications device associated with a particular telephone number. The client application'"'"'s program and remote computing entity exchange information in SMS messages, and the client application program finally transmits secret information obtained from the remote computing entity back to the remote server via WAP-based communications.

Claims

1. A method for obtaining, by a local computational entity running on a mobile communications device, information associated with a mobile communications device that is not directly available to the local computational entity, the method comprising:

sending a request message by the computational entity to a remote computational entity; and

receiving, by the local computational, the information associated with the mobile communications device from the remote computational entity in a response message.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the local computational entity is a client application program.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the remote computational entity is a remote server.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the mobile communications device is one of:

a mobile phone;

a computer that includes a cellular modem card;

a computer that includes built-in cellular-wireless functions;

a hand-held electronic device that includes a cellular modem card; and

a hand-held electronic device that includes built-in cellular-wireless functions.

5. The method of claim 1 further including:

upon reception, by the remote computational entity, of the request message, determining the information associated with the mobile communications device from a request-message header or from other message-receiving-associated information.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the request message and response message are SMS messages.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the response message is encrypted by a secret encryption key available to the remote computational entity, the method further including:

decrypting the response message, by the local computational entity using a decryption key to obtain the information associated with the mobile communications device.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the information associated with the mobile communications device is a telephone number.

9. A wireless communications system that provides, to local computational entities, the device-associate-information acquisition method of claim 1.

10. Computer instructions, encoded in a computer-readable medium, that implement the method of claim 1.

11. A method for securely authenticating, to a remote computational entity, information associated with a mobile communications device by a local computational entity running on the mobile communications device, the method comprising:

sending a local public encryption key by the local computational entity to the remote computational entity in a first message via a first communications medium;

receiving, from the remote computational entity, a second message encrypted using the local public encryption key that contains secret information provided by the remote computational entity via the first communications medium;

decrypting the second message using a private local decryption key; and

sending the secret information by the local computational entity to the remote computational entity via a second communications medium.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the local computational entity is a client application program.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein the remote computational entity is a remote server.

14. The method of claim 11 wherein the mobile communications device is one of:

a mobile phone;

a computer that includes a cellular modem card;

a computer that includes built-in cellular-wireless functions;

a hand-held electronic device that includes a cellular modem card; and

a hand-held electronic device that includes built-in cellular-wireless functions.

15. The method of claim 11 further including:

upon reception, by the remote computational entity, of the request message, determining the information associated with the mobile communications device from a request-message header or from other message-receiving-associated information.

16. The method of claim 11 wherein the first communications medium is SMS-based communications and the second communications medium is WAP-based communications.

17. The method of claim 11 wherein the secret information is a secret value, text string, encryption key, or digital signature.

18. The method of claim 11 wherein the information associated with the mobile communications device is a telephone number.

19. A wireless communications system that provides, to local computational entities, the secure authentication method of claim 11.

20. Computer instructions, encoded in a computer-readable medium, that implement the method of claim 11.