METHOD FOR FINGERPRINTING AND IDENTIFYING INTERNET USERS

• US 20100305989A1
• Filed: 05/27/2009
• Published: 12/02/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/27/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ruicao Mu, Tie Hu
• Original Assignee: Ruicao Mu, Tie Hu
• Inventors: Hu, Tie, MU, RUICAO
• Granted Patent: US 8,126,816 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/7
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0635 Risk analysis of enterprise or organisation activities
• 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 30/0185 Product, service or business identity fraud
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions

Abstract

Various aspects of the present system provide methods and systems for authenticating online purchase by tracing internet actions to a remote computer and to an individual who operates the computer. One aspect provides a technique to generate fingerprint of computer and its user based on the information collected through the actions a user conducts on internet. Another aspect of the system provides a technique to compute the fingerprints and find relations between users and computers. Another aspect of the system provides a trust ranking to a user based on the consistency of information collected from the user'"'"'s various actions.

Claims

1. A method to authenticate a purchase, comprising:

a. establishing a one to one relationship with a remote computer and a one to one relationship with an individual;

b. collecting one or more unique or indicative parameters as a fingerprint of the remote computer,

c. collecting one or more unique or indicative parameters as a fingerprint of the individual; and

d. indexing the fingerprints to identify the remote computer and the individual to authorize the purchase.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the fingerprint of the computer and the individual is based on information collected through actions a user conducts on the Internet.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the fingerprint is represented as a string, further comprising determining a relationship M between users and computers as:

M=[(α

₁×

B₁)+P₁]×

[(α

₂×

B₂)+P₂]×

. . . ×

[(α

_n×

B_n)+P_n], where

α

_i and B_i are constants and

P_i is a comparison of the fingerprint based on each string position.

4. The method of claim 1, comprising determining a trust ranking to a user based on a consistency of information collected from the user'"'"'s actions.

5. The method of claim 1, comprising generating a database of unique user identification based on a set of fingerprints.

6. The method of claim 1, comprising linking a fingerprint from user actions to a user.

7. The method of claim 1, comprising

a. identifying one or more intrinsic traits of the remote computer and the individual,

b. linking the intrinsic traits to the individual for authentication instead of relying on the individual'"'"'s representation for authentication or extrinsic information about the individual.

8. The method of claim 7, comprising deriving the intrinsic traits from parameters generated by the remote computer software and/or hardware substantially beyond the individual'"'"'s control, including a browser cookie, a computer hardware identification, and computer internet protocol address.

9. The method of claim 1, comprising assigning a different weight to each fingerprint in determining uniqueness of the individual.

10. The method of claim 1, comprising assigning a different weight to each fingerprint in determining uniqueness of the remote computer.

11. The method of claim 1, comprising determining the relationship of multiple individuals, each containing the same fingerprint.

12. The method of claim 1, comprising assigning a trust ranking to each individual by parsing parameters and cross checking information contained in the parameters.

13. The method of claim 1, comprising querying an external database, and cross checking with information from user inputs and or parsed from one or more parameters.

14. The method of claim 1, comprising assigned a low trust ranking if information entered by the individual differs from the fingerprint for the individual.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the fingerprint is encrypted.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the fingerprint comprises a string.

17. The method of claim 1, comprising determining relationship as:

18. The method of claim 1, comprising storing the fingerprints in a central database.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein each website accesses the central database to identify multi-site fraudsters.

20. The method of claim 1, comprising generating the trust ranking by verifying an address, a telephone number, a browser system information, and a device hardware information.