Single System for Authenticating Entities Across Different Third Party Platforms

• US 20150170194A1
• Filed: 02/05/2015
• Published: 06/18/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/08/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dun & Bradstreet Corp., DUN & Bradstreet Incorporated (Dun & Bradstreet Corp.), Hoover's Incorporated (Dun & Bradstreet Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Credibility Corp. (Dun & Bradstreet Corp.)
• Inventors: Stibel, Jeffrey M., Buechler, Chad Michael, Landgraf, Raymond, Delgrosso, Peter, Stibel, Aaron B.
• Granted Patent: US 10,210,539 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/00 Security arrangements for protecting computers, components thereof, programs or data against unauthorised activity
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/31 User authentication
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2103 Challenge-response
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2111 Location-sensitive, e.g. geographical location, GPS
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0207 Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0222 During e-commerce, i.e. online transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0239 Online discounts or incentives
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0251 Targeted advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0253 During e-commerce, i.e. online transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/16 Arrangements for providing special services to substations
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2463/082 applying multi-factor authentication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0815 providing single-sign-on or federations
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/107 wherein the security policies are location-dependent, e.g. entities privileges depend on current location or allowing specific operations only from locally connected terminals

Abstract

Some embodiments provide an independent authentication system for authenticating entities that have registered accounts across different online service providers on behalf of the service providers. The authentication system maintains a database of previously verified entity information. A service provider requests authentication by providing the authentication system with unverified and basic identifying information used by an entity when registering with the service provider. The authentication system attempts to match the registration information against previously verified information for a known entity. When a match is found, the authentication system generates a series of challenge questions. The questions are submitted to the entity through the service provider and answers are processed in order to authenticate the entity. Authentication is thus provided on behalf of the service provider without the service provider accessing the previously verified information and without the service provider independently verifying the information within the generated challenge questions.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

maintaining a profile for each of a plurality of entities, each profile storing any of personal and business identifying information about a different entity;

receiving from an online merchant, a plurality of eligibility requirements setting qualifications restricting entity eligibility to a promotion offered by the online merchant;

identifying a subset of entities from the plurality of entities with profiles storing identifying information satisfying said plurality of eligibility requirements, wherein the subset of entities are unknown to the online merchant; and

performing a targeted marketing campaign comprising passing a code to the subset of entities, said code for redeeming the promotion from the online merchant.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving from the online merchant, an identifier provided by a particular entity completing a transaction with the online merchant using said code.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising verifying eligibility of the particular entity for said promotion by (i) retrieving a profile of the particular entity using said identifier, (ii) notifying the online merchant of the particular entity'"'"'s eligibility for said promotion when the particular entity profile stores identifying information satisfying said plurality of eligibility requirements, and (iii) notifying the online merchant of the particular entity'"'"'s ineligibility for said promotion when the particular entity profile stores identifying information that does not satisfy said plurality of eligibility requirements.

4. The method of claim 2 further comprising linking a set of identifiers identifying the subset of entities to the code, said set of identifiers for use in determining which entities are eligible for said promotion.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising verifying eligibility of the particular entity for said promotion when the identifier provided by a particular entity matches any of the set of identifiers identifying the subset of entities.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein performing the targeted marketing campaign comprises directly disseminating said code to the subset of entities eligible for the promotion using contact information obtained from the profile of each entity of the subset of entities.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein performing the targeted marketing campaign comprises notifying the online merchant about the subset of entities eligible for the promotion.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of eligibility requirements identify a primary demographic of customers for the online merchant from other customers, and wherein performing the targeted marketing campaign comprises sending the code to the primary demographic of customers.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of eligibility requirements identify a desired set of candidates, and wherein performing the targeted marketing campaign comprises passing the code only to the desired set of candidates represented by the subset of entities.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of eligibility requirements set qualifications restricting entity eligibility for the promotion according to any of a number of years an entity operates and entity revenue.

11. The method of claim 1 further comprising providing an online interface with which the online merchant specifies the plurality of eligibility requirements.

12. A method comprising:

receiving a plurality of marketing campaigns from a plurality of marketing partners, each marketing campaign of the plurality of marketing campaigns specifying an eligibility requirement and a promotion that entities satisfying the eligibility requirements are eligible to receive;

receiving identifying information for an entity;

matching the identifying information to previously verified information that is stored in a particular entity record of a plurality of entity records, wherein each entity record of the plurality of entity records stores previously verified information for a different entity;

identifying a set of the plurality of marketing campaigns comprising promotions that the entity is eligible to receive based on the previously verified information from the particular entity record satisfying the eligibility requirement that is specified for each marketing campaign of the set of marketing campaigns; and

presenting to the entity, the promotion from each marketing campaign of the set of marketing campaigns that the entity is eligible to redeem.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein presenting the promotion from each marketing campaign of the set of marketing campaigns comprises presenting different codes usable by the entity in redeeming the promotion associated with each marketing campaign of the set of marketing campaigns.

14. The method of claim 12 further comprising authenticating the entity attempting redemption of a promotion offered by a particular marketing partner of the plurality of marketing partners by generating a series of challenge questions from the previously verified information of the particular entity record and presenting said series of challenge questions to the entity in order to verify identity of the entity.

15. The method of claim 12 further comprising generating a profile to store the promotions from the set of marketing campaigns that the entity is eligible to receive and presenting the set of marketing campaigns that are stored to the profile when the entity provides a set of access credentials.

16. The method of claim 12 further comprising filtering a plurality of entities to a subset of entities that satisfy the eligibility requirement from a particular marketing campaign of the plurality of marketing campaigns.

17. The method of claim 16 further comprising disseminating a code usable in redeeming the promotion from the particular marketing campaign to each entity of the subset of entities.

18. The method of claim 16 further comprising providing the subset of entities as marketing leads to a marketing partner offering the particular marketing campaign.

19. A method comprising:

receiving an eligibility requirement linked to a promotion, wherein entities satisfying the eligibility requirement are eligible to receive the promotion from an online merchant;

receiving an identifier provided by a particular entity requesting redemption of said promotion as part of completing a transaction with the online merchant;

verifying the particular entity to be a specific individual or business by retrieving a profile containing identifying information about the particular entity using said identifier, generating a series of challenge questions based on the profile identifying information, and submitting the series of challenge questions to the particular entity for response;

receiving responses the particular entity provides to the series of challenge questions; and

verifying the particular entity as eligible to receive the promotion when said responses correctly answer the series of challenge questions and when the profile identifying information satisfies the eligibility requirement.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the eligibility requirement specifies a specific parent-child relationship in which entities that have a child relationship to a particular parent entity are eligible to receive said promotion, and wherein verifying the particular entity as eligible to receive the promotion comprises verifying that the particular entity is a child of the particular parent entity.