SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR IDENTIFICATION AND AUTHENTICATION OF A USER

• US 20080120717A1
• Filed: 11/21/2006
• Published: 05/22/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/21/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verient Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Rajesh G. Shakkarwar
• Inventors: Shakkarwar, Rajesh G.
• Granted Patent: US 8,661,520 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/18
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/33 using certificates
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/34 involving the use of external additional devices, e.g. dongles or smart cards

Abstract

The present invention generally relates to a computer security system for use in the identification and authentication of a user prior to an on-line transaction. In one aspect, a method for enrolling a user in a system configured to identify and authenticate the user is provided. The method includes collecting a username and password to identify the user. The method further includes extracting device data from a user machine to uniquely identify the machine. The method also includes generating a user profile based upon the device data and the username and password. Additionally, the method includes transmitting the user profile to a server machine to be stored. In another aspect, a computer-readable medium including a set of instructions that when executed by a processor cause the processor to enroll a user in a system configured to identify and authenticate the user is the provided. In yet a further aspect, a system for identifying and authenticating a user is provided.

Claims

1. A method for enrolling a user in a system configured to identify and authenticate the user, the method comprising:

collecting a username and password to identify the user;

extracting device data from a user machine to uniquely identify the machine;

generating a user profile based upon the device data and the username and password; and

transmitting the user profile to a server machine to be stored.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of verifying an identity of the user to create a verified user identity.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising the step of binding the verified user identity with the user profile.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the step of binding the verified user identity with the user profile eliminates the identity verification of the user at each transaction.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the step of verifying the identity of the user comprises prompting the user to answer at least one specific personal question and comparing the user'"'"'s answer to a known answer.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the known answer is from an institution data base or a third party data base.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein an institution issues a one-time credential to the user upon verifying the identity of the user.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the one-time credential is used to authenticate the user.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the extracted device data may include a device ID, a vender ID, information in a Microcode patch, data accessed through PCI configuration space or data accessed through a SMM memory space.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the extracted device data may include chipset hidden and/or unhidden registers, graphics card hidden and/or unhidden registers, interrupt routing, GPIO routing, PCI Device Select routing or a directory structure.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the extracted device data may include installed applications, data at different locations in firmware, a memory type, or a memory clock speed.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the extracted device data may include an amount of memory, a size of a hard drive, or a name of a maker of the hard drive.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the extracted device data may include a MAC address, a hard drive serial number, a check sum of firmwares/BIOS, or an operating system registry.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the extracted device data may include a CPU type, a CPU version, or a CPU clock speed.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of encrypting the user profile before transmitting the user profile to the server machine.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of collecting biometric data from the user to identify the user of the machine.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the biometric data may include typing patterns of the user, fingerprint data, or iris pattern data.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the extracted device data may include machine level attributes and/or system level attributes and/or system patterns and/or user machine geo location.

19. A computer-readable medium including a set of instructions that when executed by a processor cause the processor to enroll a user in a system configured to identify and authenticate the user, by performing the steps of:

collecting a username and password to identify the user;

extracting device data from a user machine to uniquely identify the machine;

generating a user profile based upon the device data and the username and password; and

transmitting the user profile to a server machine to be stored.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 19, wherein the server machine binds a verified user identity with the user profile.

21. The computer-readable medium of claim 20, wherein the verified user identity is generated after prompting the user to answer at least one specific personal question and comparing the user'"'"'s answer to a known answer.

22. The computer-readable medium of claim 19, wherein the extracted device data may include machine level attributes and/or system level attributes and/or system patterns and/or a geo location of the user machine.

23. The computer-readable medium of claim 19, further comprising the step of encrypting the user profile before transmitting the user profile to the server machine.

24. The computer-readable medium of claim 19, further comprising the step of collecting biometric data from the user to identify the user of the machine.

25. A system for identifying and authenticating a user, the system comprising:

a server machine that includes a user profiles database; and

a computing device having a processor and a memory, wherein the memory includes a security agent program configured to;

collect a username and password to identify the user;

extract device data from a user machine to uniquely identify the machine;

generate a user profile based upon the device data and the username and password; and

transmit the user profile to the server machine to be stored.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein the server machine is configured to bind a verified user identity with the user profile.

27. The system of claim 25, wherein the extracted device data may include machine level attributes and/or system level attributes and/or system patterns and/or user machine geo location.

28. The system of claim 25, wherein the security agent program is further configured to encrypt the user profile with a public key before transmitting the user profile to the server machine.

29. The system of claim 25, wherein the server machine is configured to decrypt the user profile with a private key.

30. The system of claim 25, wherein the security agent program is further configured to collect biometric data from the user to identify the user of the computing device.

31. The system of claim 25, wherein the user name and/or password is collected through a keypad on the computing device.

32. The system of claim 31, wherein the location of the key pad and/or key sizes and/or key locations are configured to be systematically changed to protect against mouse logging.