Method and apparatus for on-line value-bearing item system

• US 7,567,940 B1
• Filed: 10/17/2000
• Issued: 07/28/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/18/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Stamps.com, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Stamps.com, Inc.
• Inventors: Venkat, Girish, McDermott, James, Engelberg, Ari, Ananda, Mohan
• Primary Examiner(s): Elisca; Pierre E
• Application Number:
  US09/690,243
• Time in Patent Office: 3,206 Days
• Field of Search: 705/67, 705/60, 705/50, 705/61, 705/62, 705/63, 705/64, 705/75, 705/51, 380/228, 380/232, 713/200, 713/201
• US Class Current: 705/62
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• 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 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 17/0008 Communication details outside or between apparatus coin-freed apparatus for franking per se G07F17/26
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 17/00733 Cryptography or similar special procedures in a franking system
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 2017/00056 Client-server
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 2017/00064 Virtual meter, online stamp; PSD functions or indicia creation not at user's location
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 2017/00145 via the Internet
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 2017/00201 Open franking system, i.e. the printer is not dedicated to franking only, e.g. PC (Personal Computer)
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 2017/00887 using look-up tables, also called master tables with pointers
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 2017/00967 PSD [Postal Security Device] as defined by the USPS [US Postal Service]

Abstract

An on-line value bearing item (VBI) printing system that includes one or more cryptographic modules and a secure database is disclosed. The secure database has the ability to recover data in case of a database failure and includes account balances and other information for all of the on-line value-bearing item system customers and is capable of preventing access by unauthorized users. Also, a secure communication network is in operation to prevent unauthorized access to the users'"'"' data stored in the database.

A plurality of subsystems located on the server system side of the on-line VBI system provide services related to purchasing, accounting, and printing of VBI. Preferably, these services run on multiple server machines allowing the system to be scalable. The number of the servers can easily be increased to meet the growing needs of the subsystems as the numbers of transactions and users increase. The growing number of servers will not impact the performance of the on-line postage system, because the design of the on-line postage system allows for scalability.

Claims

1. A scalable on-line system for printing value bearing items (VBI) comprising:

a client system; and

a scalable server system communicating with the client system over a communication network comprising;

a database remote from the client system and including information about a plurality of users;

a plurality of transaction data records stored in the database to ensure authenticity of the plurality of users; and

a plurality of stateless cryptographic devices remote from the client system and capable of authenticating and processing VBI printing requests from any of the plurality of users using a respective transaction data records stored in the database, wherein when a VBI printing request from a current user is received by the server system, an available cryptographic device from the plurality of cryptographic devices and the database cross-verify a copy of a last transaction data record stored in the database and stored in the available cryptographic device, before processing the VBI printing request from the current user, and wherein the server system sends a print authorization to the client system to print a VBI when the copy of the last transaction data record is cross-verified.

2. The scalable on-line system of claim 1, wherein each transaction data record is related to a user.

3. The scalable on-line system of claim 2, wherein the transaction data record related to a user is loaded into a respective cryptographic module when the user requests to operate on a value bearing item.

4. The scalable on-line system of claim 3, wherein the transaction data record related to a user is updated and returned to the database.

5. The scalable on-line system of claim 1, further comprising computer executable code for load-balancing to distribute traffic among multiple cryptographic modules.

6. The scalable on-line system of claim 1, wherein the database is partitioned across a plurality of physical databases.

7. The scalable on-line system of claim 1, wherein each cryptographic device performs cryptographic function on a transaction related to the database.

8. The scalable on-line system of claim 1, further comprising computer executable code for password authentication to prevent unauthorized access to the database.

9. The scalable on-line system of claim 1, wherein the database stores a first set of one or more last database transactions and each cryptographic device stores a second set of one or more last database transactions for comparison with the first set of one or more last database transactions stored in the database to verify each database transaction.

10. The scalable on-line system of claim 9, wherein each cryptographic device prevents further database transactions if the second set of one or more last transaction stored in the cryptographic module does not compare with the first set of one or more last transaction stored in the database.

11. The scalable on-line system of claim 1, wherein each cryptographic device includes a data validation subsystem for allowing the module to verify that data is up to date and an auto-recovery subsystem for automatically re-synchronize the module with the data.

12. The scalable on-line system of claim 1, wherein each cryptographic device includes a computer executable code for preventing unauthorized modification of data.

13. The scalable on-line system of claim 1, wherein each cryptographic device includes a computer executable code for ensuring proper operation of cryptographic security and VBI related meter functions.

14. The scalable on-line system of claim 1, wherein each cryptographic device includes a computer executable code for supporting multiple concurrent users.

15. The scalable on-line system of claim 1, wherein the database includes one or more indicium data elements, data for account maintenance, and data for revenue protection.

16. The scalable on-line system of claim 1, wherein the database includes virtual meter information.

17. The scalable on-line system of claim 1, wherein the database includes descending register data.

18. The scalable on-line system of claim 1, wherein the value bearing item is a mail piece.

19. The scalable on-line system of claim 18, wherein postal indicium comprises a digital signature.

20. The scalable on-line system of claim 1, wherein a respective cryptographic device performs cryptographic function on validation information according to a user request for printing a VBI.

21. The scalable on-line system of claim 1, wherein a respective cryptographic device generates data sufficient to print a postal indicium in compliance with postal service regulation on a mail piece.

22. The scalable on-line system of claim 1, wherein the value bearing item is a ticket.

23. The scalable on-line system of claim 1, wherein a bar code is printed on the value bearing item.

24. The scalable on-line system of claim 1, wherein the value bearing item is a coupon.

25. The scalable on-line system of claim 1, wherein the value bearing item is currency.

26. The scalable on-line system of claim 1, wherein the value bearing item is a voucher.

27. The scalable on-line system of claim 1, wherein the value bearing item is a traveler'"'"'s check.

28. A scalable on-line system for printing value bearing items (VBI) comprising:

a client system; and

a scalable server system communicating with the client system over a communication network comprising;

a database remote from the client system and including information about a plurality of users;

a plurality of transaction data records stored in the database to ensure authenticity of the plurality of users, wherein each transaction data record includes information to restore the data record to its last known state, when the data record is next used; and

a plurality of stateless cryptographic devices remote from the client system and capable of authenticating and processing VBI printing requests from any of the plurality of users using a respective transaction data records stored in the database, wherein when a VBI printing request from a current user is received by the server system, an available cryptographic device from the plurality of cryptographic devices loads the current user'"'"'s transaction data record and instantiates a user state in the transaction data record to process the VBI printing requests from the current user,

wherein each transaction data record includes one or more of an ascending register value, a descending register value, a respective cryptographic module ID, an indicium key certificate serial number, a licensing ZIP code, a key token for an indicium signing key, user secrets, a key for encrypting user secrets, date and time of last transaction, last challenge received from a respective client subsystem, an operational state of the respective module, expiration dates for keys, and a passphrase repetition list.

29. The scalable on-line system of claim 28, wherein each transaction data record includes one or more of a private key, a public key, and a public key certificate, wherein the private key is used to sign module status responses and a VBI which, in conjunction with a public key certificate, demonstrates that the module and the VBI are authentic.

30. The scalable on-line system of claim 28, wherein each cryptographic module includes executable instructions to perform one or more of Rivest, Shamir and Adleman (RSA) public key encryption, DES, Triple-DES, DSA signature, SHA-1, and Pseudo-random number generation algorithms.

31. The scalable on-line system of claim 28, wherein the server system further comprises one or more of a postal server subsystem, a provider server subsystem, an e-commerce subsystem, a staging subsystem, a client support subsystem, a decision support subsystem, a SMTP subsystem, an address matching service subsystem, a SSL proxy server subsystem, and a web server subsystem.

32. The scalable on-line system of claim 28, wherein the database includes one or more of a postal database, a provider database, an e-commerce database, and a membership database.

33. The scalable on-line system of claim 28, further comprising an address matching server for verifying a correct address specified by a user.

34. The scalable on-line system of claim 28, further comprising a printer driver database for storing supported printer driver information.

35. A method for printing value-bearing items (VBI) via a communication network including a client system, and a server system, the method comprising the steps of:

accepting print requests from a plurality of users by the client system;

communicating the print requests to the server system over the communication network;

storing in a database a plurality of transaction data records, wherein each transaction data record includes information to restore the data record to its last known state, when the data record is next used;

ensuring authenticity of the plurality of users utilizing a respective transaction data record;

processing in a stateless manner each transaction data record in the server system;

authenticating by a cryptographic device any of the plurality of users in a stateless manner, utilizing one or more of the plurality of transaction data record stored in the database;

receiving a VBI printing request from a current user;

loading the current user'"'"'s transaction data record in the cryptographic device; and

instantiating a user state in the transaction data record to process the VBI printing requests from the current user,

wherein each of the transaction data records includes an ascending register value, a descending register value, a respective cryptographic device ID, an indicium key certificate serial number, a licensing ZIP code, a key token for an indicium signing key, user secrets, a key for encrypting user secrets, date and time of last transaction, last challenge received from a respective client subsystem, an operational state of the respective device, expiration dates for keys, and a passphrase repetition list.

36. The method of claim 35, further comprising the step of performing one or more of Rivest, Shamir and Adleman (RSA) public key encryption, DES, Triple-DES, DSA signature, SHA-1, and Pseudo-random number generation algorithms using the cryptographic device.

37. The method of claim 35, further comprising the step keeping track of user accesses to a vendor website using a website database.

38. The method of claim 35, further comprising the step of storing postal transaction data, financial transaction data, customer marketing information, commerce product information, meter license information, meter resets, meter history, and meter movement information in an offline database.

39. The method of claim 35, further comprising the step of storing customer information, financial transactions, and information for marketing queries in a data warehouse database.

40. The method of claim 35, further comprising the steps of authorizing and capturing funds from a customer'"'"'s account and transferring the funds to a vendor'"'"'s account using an e-commerce server.

41. The method of claim 35, further comprising the step of verifying a correct address specified using a user using an address matching server.

42. The method of claim 35, further comprising the step of storing supported printer driver information in a printer driver database.