Authenticated Payment

• US 20100293100A1
• Filed: 07/23/2010
• Published: 11/18/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 04/17/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: VeriSign, Inc.
• Original Assignee: VeriSign, Inc.
• Inventors: Graves, Michael E., Frank, Peter E., Whitehead, Gregory R., Plambeck, Thane
• Granted Patent: US 7,983,993 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/67
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/02 involving a neutral party, e.g. certification authority, notary or trusted third party [TTP]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/04 Payment circuits
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/0855 involving a third party
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/12 specially adapted for electronic shopping systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/367 involving electronic purses or money safes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3674 involving authentication
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/382 insuring higher security of transaction
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3821 Electronic credentials
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3825 Use of electronic signatures
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3829 involving key management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/385 using an alias or single-use codes
• 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 20/401 Transaction verification
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions

Abstract

A buyer (110) wishes to use a payment instrument as part of an online commerce transaction with a seller (120) and it is desired to authenticate that the buyer (110) has authority to use the payment instrument. A separate authentication service (130) determines whether the buyer (110) has access to certain secret information without revealing the secret information to the seller (120). Access to the secret information would verify that the buyer (110) has authority to use the payment instrument. The authentication service (130) informs the seller (120) whether the buyer (110) is authorized to use the payment instrument.

Claims

1. A method for authenticating a payment transaction over a network, comprising:

at a payment authentication service, linking secret information to at least a first payment instrument of a buyer, the secret information being known only to the buyer;

receiving a request to authenticate the buyer as being authorized to use the first payment instrument in a payment transaction;

subsequent to the step of linking the secret information to the first payment instrument and in response to receiving the request to authenticate the buyer, sending a challenge request to the buyer over the network, the challenge request including a summary of the payment transaction;

subsequent to the step of linking the secret information to the first payment instrument, receiving a selection of the first payment instrument from the buyer;

receiving a challenge response from the buyer over the network, the challenge response proving that the buyer has access to the secret information;

in response to receiving the challenge response, determining that the buyer has access to the secret information and that the buyer is authorized to use the first payment instrument; and

notifying the seller that the buyer is authorized to use the first payment instrument.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the secret information is a secret encryption key of the buyer, and wherein said step of linking the secret information further comprises linking a corresponding public key to the first payment instrument.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the request to authenticate the buyer as being authorized to use the first payment instrument is received from the seller.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the request to authenticate the buyer as being authorized to use the first payment instrument is received from the buyer.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating a digitally signed record of the transaction once the transaction is complete.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the record of the payment transaction is digitally signed using the buyer'"'"'s private encryption key.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the record of the online transaction is digitally signed using a private key of the payment authentication service.

8. The method of claim 5, further comprising, subsequent to generating the signed record of the transaction:

storing the signed record of the transaction;

in response to a dispute related to the payment transaction, retrieving the stored signed record of the transaction; and

based upon the contents of the signed record of the transaction, resolving the dispute related to the payment transaction.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

in response to receiving an offer by the buyer to use the first payment instrument in the payment transaction, querying a directory to identify the payment authentication service from among a plurality of payment authentication services.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein each of the plurality of payment authentication services authenticates a different payment instrument of the buyer, each of which is linked to the secret information.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of determining that the buyer has access to the secret information comprises decrypting a portion of the received challenge response using a public key of the buyer.

12. A computer readable medium storing instructions adapted to be executed by a processor, the instructions causing the processor to perform a method comprising:

at a payment authentication service, linking secret information to at least a first payment instrument of a buyer, the secret information being known only to the buyer;

receiving a request to authenticate the buyer as being authorized to use the first payment instrument in a payment transaction;

subsequent to the step of linking the secret information to the first payment instrument and in response to receiving the request to authenticate the buyer, sending a challenge request to the buyer over the network, the challenge request including a summary of the payment transaction;

subsequent to the step of linking the secret information to the first payment instrument, receiving a selection of the first payment instrument from the buyer;

receiving a challenge response from the buyer over the network, the challenge response proving that the buyer has access to the secret information;

in response to receiving the challenge response, determining that the buyer has access to the secret information and that the buyer is authorized to use the first payment instrument; and

notifying the seller that the buyer is authorized to use the first payment instrument.

13. A system for authenticating a payment transaction over a network, comprising:

a transaction archive; and

an authentication service coupled to the transaction archive and the network, the authentication service web server configured to;

link secret information to at least a first payment instrument of a buyer, the secret information being known only to the buyer;

receive a request to authenticate the buyer as being authorized to use the first payment instrument in a payment transaction;

subsequent to the step of linking the secret information to the first payment instrument and in response to receiving the request to authenticate the buyer, send a challenge request to the buyer over the network, the challenge request including a summary of the payment transaction;

subsequent to the step of linking the secret information to the first payment instrument, receive a selection of the first payment instrument from the buyer;

receive a challenge response from the buyer over the network, the challenge response proving that the buyer has access to the secret information;

in response to receiving the challenge response, determine that the buyer has access to the secret information and that the buyer is authorized to use the first payment instrument; and

notify the seller that the buyer is authorized to use the first payment instrument.