Method and system for mitigating risk of fraud in internet banking

• US 20080162338A1
• Filed: 12/30/2006
• Published: 07/03/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apiture, Inc.
• Original Assignee: FundsXpress Financial Network Incorporated (Fiserv Incorporated)
• Inventors: Bruce, Joseph, Samuels, Maurice, Lieblich, Cindi
• Granted Patent: US 8,788,419 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/38
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/40 by quorum, i.e. whereby two or more security principals are required
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2101 Auditing as a secondary aspect
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2151 Time stamp
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/04 Payment circuits
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/108 Remote banking, e.g. home banking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/40 Authorisation, e.g. identification of payer or payee, verification of customer or shop credentials; Review and approval of payers, e.g. check credit lines or negative lists
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/4016 involving fraud or risk level assessment in transaction processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/03 Credit; Loans; Processing thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2463/102 applying security measure for e-commerce data processing systems or methods, specially adapted for e-commerce G06Q30/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2463/121 Timestamp cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements involving time stamps H04L9/3297
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/20 for managing network security; network security policies in general filtering policies H04L63/0227

Abstract

A method and system are provided for mitigating the risk of fraud in Internet banking. In an embodiment comprising an end user seeking access to the Internet banking site of a financial institution, the end user having already satisfied a first authentication requirement (such as providing a valid user id and password), the end user is required to satisfy a second authentication test when a measure of improbability associated with the login exceeds a threshold. The measure of improbability, in an embodiment, is based on the improbability of a combination of session statistics such as IP address, browser ID, hour of day, and time since the user'"'"'s last valid login.

Claims

1. A method for mitigating the risk of fraud in Internet banking, comprising:

receiving from a remote site a request for access to a financial institution'"'"'s Internet banking site, said request having satisfied a first authentication requirement associated with a customer of the financial institution and said request having two or more attributes;

calculating a score corresponding to a measure of improbability of the occurrence of at least two of the attributes; and

conditioning approval of the request on satisfaction of a second authentication requirement if the score exceeds a configurable threshold.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the two or more attributes comprise the following:

The Internet network address of the remote site;

The browser footprint of the remote site;

The time of day of the request; and

The time since the last Internet banking transaction by the customer.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the request for access seeks initial access to the financial institution'"'"'s Internet banking site.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the request for access seeks access to a transaction page within the financial institution'"'"'s Internet banking site.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the two or more attributes further include one or more of the following:

number of clicks; and

duration of session.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the measure of improbability is based on a plurality of previous Internet banking transactions by the customer.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising reporting the score to the financial institution.

8. The method of claim 2 wherein the two or more attributes further comprise one or more of the following:

presence of a persistent cookie; and

referrer ID.

9. A method of mitigating the risk of fraud in Internet banking comprising:

receiving from a remote site a request for access to a financial institution'"'"'s Internet banking site;

determining that the request is unusual based on the improbability of occurrence of a plurality of attributes of the request; and

reporting the request to the financial institution.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the request is reported to the financial institution in real time.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising refusing access until at least two authentication requirements have been satisfied.

12. A system for mitigating the risk of fraud in Internet banking, comprising:

a server comprising an authentication module wherein the authentication module includes instructions for;

receiving from a remote site a request for access to a financial institution'"'"'s Internet banking site;

determining that the request is unusual based on the improbability of occurrence of a plurality of attributes of the request; and

reporting the request to the financial institution.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the authentication module further includes instructions for denying the request unless two or more authentication requirements are met.

14. A system for mitigating the risk of fraud in Internet Banking, comprising:

a session statistics module that computes an improbability measure of session attributes associated with a request for access to a financial institution'"'"'s Internet banking web site; and

an additional authorization module that requires satisfaction of two or more authentication requirements before allowing access to the Internet Banking web site when the improbability measure of session attributes exceeds a configurable threshold.

15. The system of claim 14 further comprising a reporting module that reports a plurality of session attributes and the improbability measure to the financial institution.

16. A system for mitigating the risk of fraud in Internet banking, comprising:

a server comprising;

a processor; and

a memory containing instructions that are executed by the processor for;

receiving from a remote site a request for access to a financial institution'"'"'s Internet banking site, said request having satisfied a first authentication requirement associated with a customer of the financial institution and said request having a plurality of attributes;

calculating a score corresponding to a measure of improbability of the occurrence of the plurality of attributes; and

conditioning approval of the request on satisfaction of a second authentication requirement if the score exceeds a configurable threshold.

18. A computer readable storage medium comprising instructions for mitigating the risk of fraud in Internet banking by:

receiving from a remote site a request for access to a financial institution'"'"'s Internet banking site, said request having satisfied a first authentication requirement associated with a customer of the financial institution and said request having a plurality of attributes;

calculating a score corresponding to a measure of improbability of the occurrence of the plurality of attributes; and

conditioning approval of the request on satisfaction of a second authentication requirement if the score exceeds a configurable threshold.