AUTHENTICATION & AUTHORIZATION OF TRANSACTIONS USING AN EXTERNAL ALIAS

• US 20130204787A1
• Filed: 02/05/2013
• Published: 08/08/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 02/03/2012
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Pieter Dubois
• Original Assignee: Pieter Dubois
• Inventors: Dubois, Pieter
• Application Number:
  US13/759,063
• Publication Number:
  US 20130204787A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/44
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/02 involving a neutral party, e.g. certification authority, notary or trusted third party [TTP]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/384 using social networks
• 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

Abstract

Described herein is a transaction system (100) in which a transaction is authenticated using an external alias. When procuring an item from a supplier (120), a customer (110) needs to provide payment in some form or the other. Profiles relating to both the customer (110) and the supplier (120) are stored in an environment managed by a broker (130) and payment is effected by transfer of within that environment from a customer wallet to a supplier wallet. The customer (120) is represented as an alias as far as the supplier (120) is concerned, whereby the alias is provided by an external identity provider (140) such as a social network with which the customer (120) is associated. The anonymity of the customer (120) is maintained with respect to the supplier (120).

Claims

1. A method for authenticating &

authorizing transactions using an external alias, over electronic networks comprising;

initiating a transaction, by a first entity sending a transaction request to a second entity comprising;

the type of external alias to use;

any other required transactional information, but not requiring any specific information identifying the first entity to the second entity;

receiving said transaction request by a second entity and generating a new transaction request, sent to a third entity, comprising;

the type of alias the first entity requested;

information identifying the second entity to said third entity;

any other required transaction details;

receiving said new transaction request by the aforementioned third entity comprising;

an environment to create a trust relationship with, and store identity information of the first and second entity;

an ability to create a trust relationship with one or more fourth entities and retrieve one or more aliases of the first entity from said fourth entity and associate them with the identity of the first entity as known by the third entity;

an environment for obtaining, storing and transferring electronic representations of at least one medium of exchange for transactional purposes from the first to the second entity or from the second from the first entity;

initiating an authentication request by the third entity to the fourth entity as indicated in the aforementioned type of alias, and receiving an authentication initiation response from the fourth entity comprising;

a request token, indicating a request for authentication is created by the third entity;

a request token secret key, for future interaction in the authentication process between the third entity and the fourth entity;

instructing by the third entity of the first entity, while passing the request token and other required information excluding the request token secret key, to authenticate itself to the fourth entity as identified by the aforementioned type of alias characterised in that said fourth entity comprises;

an environment that already created a trust relationship with the third entity;

an existing authentication transaction request with the third entity related to aforementioned request token;

existing identity information of the first entity, or a way to register identity information of the first entity;

at least one way for the first entity to authenticate itself to the fourth entity;

authenticating of the first entity to the fourth entity by one of the methods it supports comprising;

userid and password of the first entity;

browser based cookies with authentication information;

authentication information stored in a secure element in the device the first entity uses;

mobile operating system supported integrations of the first entity with the fourth entity;

creating an authentication verifier code by the fourth entity based on the alias of the first entity existing in the fourth entity and the aforementioned request token and returning it to the first entity;

passing of the said authorization verifier code by the first entity to the third entity;

requesting of the identity alias of the first entity by the third entity to the forth entity by sending a message constructed from elements comprising;

request token;

authentication verifier code;

request token secret key;

the trust relationship between the third and the fourth entity;

receiving by the third entity from the fourth entity, after verification of the aforementioned message by the fourth entity, of the identity alias of the first entity as known by the fourth entity as well as other required information;

matching by the third entity of the identity alias of the first entity as received from the fourth entity, with the already stored identity alias of the first entity in the third entity;

performing of the transaction by the third entity between the first entity and the second entity;

informing by the third entity to the second entity of the transaction result of the transaction between the second entity and the first entity;

informing by the second entity to the first entity of the transaction result of the transaction between the first entity and the second entity and optionally providing access to the first entity of the object of the transaction.

2. The method of claim 1 where the fourth entity asks for explicit authorization to the first entity to divulge the first entity'"'"'s alias to the third entity.

3. The method of claim 1 where the third entity asks for authorization of the transaction to the first entity after it retrieved the alias of the first entity.

4. The method of claim 1 where the environment in the third entity comprises at least one first entity profile relating to said first entity and at least one second entity profile relating to said second entity within said environment, said unique identity information of said first and second entities being stored in respective ones of said first entity profile and said second entity profile.

5. The environment of claim 4 wherein said third entity comprises at least one wallet or account associated with each entity profile.

6. The wallet or account of claim 5 which comprises at least one of the following:

a stored value account storing an amount of real or virtual currencies;

a payment instrument like a credit card or debit card;

a direct debit authorization to a financial account;

a post-paid billing system;

a pre-paid system;

any other system that can provide medium of exchange to facilitate the transaction.

7. The method of claim 6 where there are limits set in the entity profile, account or wallet on performing a transaction, comprising:

the amount of medium of exchange per transaction;

the amount of medium of exchange per time period;

a start date;

an end date;

a specific currency;

a reusability of authorization comprising of;

one time, multiple times, per time period;

a specific first or second entity.

8. The method of claim 1 where the result of the transaction comprises at least one of:

transfer of medium of exchange from the first entity to the second entity, or vice-versa;

authorization of access to medium of exchange of the first entity by the second entity, or vice-versa;

transferring identity and other information of the first entity to the second entity;

registering of information from the second entity in the environment of the first entity, or vice-versa;

retrieving of information from the first entity environment by the second entity or vice-versa.

9. The method of claim 1 where the trust relationship between the third entity and the fourth entity comprises at least one of the following:

a shared secret key;

a public-private key pair;

an identity alias of the third entity with the fourth entity.

10. The method of claim 1 where the instruction by the third entity to the first entity to authenticate itself with the fourth entity passes through the second entity.

11. The method of claim 1 where the response by the fourth entity of the authentication of the first entity is passed from the first entity to the third entity through the second entity.

12. The method of claim 4 where the alias of the first entity, retrieved from the fourth entity is linked to the profile of the first entity.

13. The method of claim 5 where the alias for the first entity, retrieved from the fourth entity is linked to a wallet or account of the first entity.

14. The method of claim 1 where the third entity informs the first entity of the result of the transaction between the first entity and the second entity.

15. The method of claim 1 where the fourth entity is a social network.

16. The method of claim 1 where the interaction between the first, third and fourth entity is governed by the oauth protocol.