Secure messaging

• US 20080279381A1
• Filed: 08/24/2007
• Published: 11/13/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/13/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tyfone Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Tyfone Incorporated
• Inventors: Tadepalli, Prabhakar, Narendra, Siva G., Spitzer, Thomas N., Talukder, Asoke
• Granted Patent: US 7,991,158 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 380/270
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/56 Financial cryptography, e.g. electronic payment or e-cash
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/80 Wireless network architectures or network communication protocols for wireless network security H04W12/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0891 Revocation or update of secret information, e.g. encryption key update or rekeying
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3234 involving additional secure or trusted devices, e.g. TPM, smartcard, USB or software token network architectures or network communication protocols for supporting authentication of entities using an additional device in a packet data network H04L63/0853
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3242 involving keyed hash functions, e.g. message authentication codes [MACs], CBC-MAC or HMAC

Abstract

Secure authentication and messaging for mobile online transactions are performed by a secure messaging platform. The secure messaging platform may include a token coupled to a mobile device, or a mobile device alone. The token enables secure access, and client and server protocols enable secure transactions using text/SMS messaging.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

an interface capable of communicating with a mobile device; and

memory having cryptographic information useful to encrypt and decrypt short message service (SMS) messages.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the memory further includes software to be installed on the mobile device.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein the software includes short message service (SMS) encryption.

4. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein the software includes short message service (SMS) decryption.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the cryptographic information comprises at least one cryptographic key component useful to generate a cryptographic key.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the cryptographic information comprises a plurality of cryptographic key components useful to generate first and second cryptographic keys, wherein the first cryptographic key is useful to encrypt short message service (SMS) messages, and the second cryptographic key is useful to decrypt SMS messages.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 wherein the cryptographic information further comprises at least one cryptographic key component useful to generate a reference cryptographic key.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the interface capable of communicating with a mobile device comprises a universal serial bus (USB) interface.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the interface capable of communicating with a mobile device comprises a memory card compatible interface.

12. The apparatus of claim 1wherein the token includes a universal serial bus (USB) compatible interface.

13. The apparatus of claim 1wherein the token includes a memory card compatible interface.

10. An apparatus comprising:

a short message service (SMS) encryption component to encrypt SMS messages using a first key; and

an SMS decryption component to decrypt SMS messages using a second key.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein the apparatus further comprises a token compatible with a mobile device.

14. The apparatus of claim 10 further comprising a character mapping component to map encrypted SMS messages to SMS compatible characters.

15. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein the SMS encryption component includes a component for message authentication code (MAC) generation.

16. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein the MAC is included within encrypted SMS messages as cipher text.

17. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein the MAC is included with the encrypted SMS messages as clear text.

18. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein the SMS decryption component includes a component for calculated message authentication code (CMAC) generation.

19. The apparatus of claim 18 further comprising a comparison component to compare calculated message authentication codes (CMAC) with received message authentication codes (RMAC).

20. The apparatus of claim 10 further comprising a key increment component to increment the first key.

21. The apparatus of claim 10 further comprising a key recovery component to encrypt SMS messages with a reference key to synchronize key usage on an SMS communications link.

22. A method comprising:

encrypting data to produce cipher text;

mapping the cipher text to short message service (SMS) compatible data; and

sending the SMS compatible data as a text message.

23. The method of claim 22 further comprising calculating a message authentication code (MAC).

24. The method of claim 23 wherein the MAC is encrypted and included in the cipher text.

25. The method of claim 23 wherein the MAC is included in the text message as clear text.