AUTOMATIC PIN CREATION USING PASSWORD

• US 20120110634A1
• Filed: 10/25/2011
• Published: 05/03/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/03/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: PayPal, Inc. (PayPal Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Inventors: Jakobsson, Bjorn Markus
• Granted Patent: US 8,756,652 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/31 User authentication
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/46 by designing passwords or checking the strength of passwords

Abstract

A PIN is automatically generated based on at least one rule when the user enters a password through a user device. In one example, the PIN is a truncated version of the password where each character in the truncated version is mapped onto a number. The mapping can be a truncation at the beginning or end of the password, or the mapping can be with any pattern or sequence of characters in the password. This PIN generation may be transparent to the user, such that the user may not even know the PIN was generated when the password was entered. When the user attempts to access restricted content, the user may enter the PIN instead of the password, where the user may be notified of the rule used to generate the PIN so that the user will know the PIN by knowing the password.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a processor of a content provider, a first access credential;

applying, by the processor, a rule to the first access credential; and

generating, by the processor, a second access credential based on a result of the rule applied to the first access credential, wherein the second access credential is not longer than the first access credential.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first access credential is a password and the second access credential is a numeric personal identification number (PIN).

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the PIN is four digits in length.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the rule is a truncation of characters in the first access credential.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the rule is a mapping of specific characters in the first access credential to numbers to numbers.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein the password comprises characters and/or letters.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the second credential is generated when a user logs into a site of the content provider using the first access credential.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the rule is not the same for each log in by the user.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining, by the processor, whether a rule can be applied to the first credential.

10. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a processor of a content provider, identification information of a user through a user device;

receiving, by the processor, an entered credential from the user;

comparing, by the processor, the entered credential with a stored credential, wherein the stored credential was generated automatically by the processor from a first credential of the user based on a rule; and

granting access to the user if the entered credential matches the stored credential.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising notifying the user of the rule for converting the first credential to the entered credential.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the first credential is used to generate a plurality of stored credentials based on a corresponding plurality of rules.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the identification information comprises a user name, a user phone number, or a user email address.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the first credential is an alphanumeric password, the stored credential and the entered credential are numeric PINs, and the stored credential is not longer than the first credential.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the rule comprises mapping individual characters of the first credential to numbers.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein the rule maps only a portion of the first credential to numbers or characters.

17. A system, comprising:

a computer storage storing account information for a plurality of users having an account with a content provider, wherein the account information comprises a first credential, a second credential automatically generated from the first credential, and a user identifier for a user; and

a processor operable to;

receive identification information of a user through a user device;

receive an entered credential from the user;

compare the entered credential with a second credential, wherein the second credential was generated automatically from a first credential of the user based on a rule; and

granting access to the user if the entered credential matches the second credential.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the processor is further operable to notify the user of the rule for converting the first credential to the entered credential.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the first credential is used to generate a plurality of second credentials based on a corresponding plurality of rules.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the first credential is an alphanumeric password, the second credential and the entered credential are numeric PINs, and the second credential is not longer than the first credential.