Patent Application
20220400104
When a user wishes to exchange data between multiple systems or applications, a set of authentication credentials such as a username, password, or multi-factor authentication code is typically required, especially in scenarios related to the exchange of sensitive data. Said authentication credentials may be difficult to remember and highly labor intensive for a user to provide. Additionally, they are highly susceptible to being compromised in a data breach. As such, a need exists for a system which eliminates the need for user involvement in the authentication process by utilizing system-to-system authentication credential exchange.
The following presents a simplified summary of one or more embodiments of the invention in order to provide a basic understanding of such embodiments. This summary is not an extensive overview of all contemplated embodiments, and is intended to neither identify key or critical elements of all embodiments, nor delineate the scope of any or all embodiments. Its sole purpose is to present some concepts of one or more embodiments in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description that is presented later.
Embodiments of the invention relate to systems, methods, and computer program products for generation of authentication tokens, the invention comprising receiving, from a managing entity system, a data transmission, where the data transmission includes a plurality of historical datasets associated with a user; storing the received data transmission in a historical datastore; determining, via an encryption engine, a subset of the historical datasets from the historical datastore to be encrypted; applying, via the encryption engine, a plurality of encryption algorithms to a selection of data from each historical dataset of the determined subset of historical datasets, where the selection of data from each historical dataset is chosen at random; generating, via the encryption engine, an authentication token, where the authentication token is based on a set of results of the plurality of encryption algorithms; transmitting the authentication token to one or more third party systems and at least one of a managing entity system and the user device; and causing the authentication token to be stored by the one or more third party systems and the at least one of the managing entity system and the user device.
In some embodiments, the invention further comprises detecting, based on monitoring an application of the user device, a request for information exchange between the one or more third party systems and at least one of the user device and the managing entity system; causing the at least one of the user device and the managing entity system to transmit an authentication token stored at the at least one of the user device and the managing entity system to the one or more third party systems; causing the one or more third party systems to verify that the transmitted authentication token matches an authentication token stored at the one or more third party systems; and causing the one or more third party systems to authorize the request for data exchange.
In some embodiments, the plurality of historical datasets includes at least one of: a spending history, an investment history, an account balance history, a download history, a transaction history, and a location history.
In some embodiments, determining, via an encryption engine, a subset of the plurality of historical datasets to be encrypted further includes randomly selecting the subset of the plurality of historical datasets.
In some embodiments, applying, via the encryption engine, a plurality of encryption algorithms to each historical dataset of the determined subset of historical datasets further includes randomly selecting the plurality of encryption algorithms from a larger plurality of potential encryption algorithms.
In some embodiments, the invention further includes generating, after a predetermined amount of time, a new authentication token, where generation of the new authentication token includes: determining, via the encryption engine, a new subset of the plurality of historical datasets to be encrypted by randomly selecting the new subset of the plurality of historical datasets; applying, via the encryption engine, a new plurality of encryption algorithms to each historical dataset of the new subset of historical datasets by randomly selecting the new plurality of encryption algorithms from the larger plurality of potential encryption algorithms; and generating, via the encryption engine, a new authentication token, wherein the new authentication token is based on a set of results of the new plurality of encryption algorithms, by concatenating the set of results of the new plurality of encryptions algorithms into a single token; transmitting the new authentication token to one or more third party systems and at least one of a managing entity system and the user device; and causing the new authentication token to be stored by the one or more third party systems and the at least one of the managing entity system and the user device.
In some embodiments, the request for information exchange comprises a request to complete at least one of the following: log in to an account, view information of an account, complete a transaction, authorize a transaction, or transfer information between one or more systems.
The features, functions, and advantages that have been discussed may be achieved independently in various embodiments of the present invention or may be combined with yet other embodiments, further details of which can be seen with reference to the following description and drawings.
Having thus described embodiments of the invention in general terms, reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings, wherein:
Embodiments of the present invention will now be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which some, but not all, embodiments of the invention are shown. Indeed, the invention may be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will satisfy applicable legal requirements. Like numbers refer to elements throughout. Where possible, any terms expressed in the singular form herein are meant to also include the plural form and vice versa, unless explicitly stated otherwise. Also, as used herein, the term “a” and/or “an” shall mean “one or more,” even though the phrase “one or more” is also used herein.
“Entity” or “managing entity” as used herein may refer to any organization, entity, or the like in the business of moving, investing, or lending money, dealing in financial instruments, or providing financial services. This may include commercial banks, thrifts, federal and state savings banks, savings and loan associations, credit unions, investment companies, insurance companies and the like. In some embodiments, the entity may allow a user to establish an account with the entity. An “account” may be the relationship that the user has with the entity. Examples of accounts include a deposit account, such as a transactional account (e.g., a banking account), a savings account, an investment account, a money market account, a time deposit, a demand deposit, a pre-paid account, a credit account, or the like. The account is associated with and/or maintained by the entity. In other embodiments, an entity may not be a financial institution. In still other embodiments, the entity may be the merchant itself.
“Entity system” or “managing entity system” as used herein may refer to the computing systems, devices, software, applications, communications hardware, and/or other resources used by the entity to perform the functions as described herein. Accordingly, the entity system may comprise desktop computers, laptop computers, servers, Internet-of-Things (“IoT”) devices, networked terminals, mobile smartphones, smart devices (e.g., smart watches), network connections, and/or other types of computing systems or devices and/or peripherals along with their associated applications.
“User” as used herein may refer to an individual associated with an entity. As such, in some embodiments, the user may be an individual having past relationships, current relationships or potential future relationships with an entity. In some instances, a “user” is an individual who has a relationship with the entity, such as a customer or a prospective customer. In some instances described herein, the user is an individual who seeks to utilize, operate, or perform one or more activities associated with a computer terminal, typically based on successful validation of the user's authentication credentials. In some embodiments, a “user” may be an employee (e.g., a technology operator/technician, an associate, a project manager, an IT specialist, a manager, an administrator, an internal operations analyst, or the like) of the entity or enterprises affiliated with the entity, capable of operating the systems and computer terminals described herein. In other embodiments, a user may be a system or an entity performing one or more tasks described herein.
Accordingly, as used herein the term “user device” or “mobile device” may refer to mobile phones, personal computing devices, tablet computers, wearable devices, and/or any portable electronic device capable of receiving and/or storing data therein.
“Transaction” or “resource transfer” as used herein may refer to any communication between a user and a third party merchant or individual to transfer funds for purchasing or selling of a product. A transaction may refer to a purchase of goods or services, a return of goods or services, a payment transaction, a credit transaction, or other interaction involving a user's account. In the context of a financial institution, a transaction may refer to one or more of: a sale of goods and/or services, initiating an automated teller machine (ATM) or online banking session, an account balance inquiry, a rewards transfer, an account money transfer or withdrawal, opening a bank application on a user's computer or mobile device, a user accessing their e-wallet, or any other interaction involving the user and/or the user's device that is detectable by the financial institution. A transaction may include one or more of the following: renting, selling, and/or leasing goods and/or services (e.g., groceries, stamps, tickets, DVDs, vending machine items, and the like); making payments to creditors (e.g., paying monthly bills; paying federal, state, and/or local taxes; and the like); sending remittances; loading money onto stored value cards (SVCs) and/or prepaid cards; donating to charities; and/or the like.
“Engine” as used herein may refer to core elements of a computer program, or part of a computer program that serves as a foundation for a larger piece of software and drives the functionality of the software. An engine may be self-contained, but externally controllable code that encapsulates powerful logic designed to perform or execute a specific type of function. In one aspect, an engine may be underlying source code that establishes file hierarchy, input and output methods, and how a specific part of a computer program interacts or communicates with other software and/or hardware. The specific components of an engine may vary based on the needs of the specific computer program as part of the larger piece of software. In some embodiments, an engine may be configured to retrieve resources created in other computer programs, which may then be ported into the engine during specific operational aspects of the engine. An engine may be configurable to be implemented within any general purpose computing system. In doing so, the engine may be configured to execute source code embedded therein to control specific features of the general purpose computing system to execute specific computing operations, thereby transforming the general purpose system into a specific purpose computing system.
It should also be understood that “operatively coupled,” as used herein, means that the components may be formed integrally with each other, or may be formed separately and coupled together. Furthermore, “operatively coupled” means that the components may be formed directly to each other, or to teach other with one or more components located between the components that are operatively coupled together. Furthermore, “operatively coupled” may mean that the components are detachable from each other, or that they are permanently coupled together. Furthermore, “operatively coupled” may mean that components may be electronically connected.
The system described herein provides a dynamically generated authentication token for system-to-system transaction authentication and user verification. The system provides the functional benefit of eliminating the need for user-provided authentication credentials, which are not only difficult for a user to remember but are often highly susceptible to becoming compromised in a data breach. Furthermore, the system utilizes a user's “digital footprint” or unique digital history to generate said authentication tokens which provides of the benefit of ensuring that each token is truly individual to a particular user. Overall, the system provides a more secure and more efficient method of authenticating data exchange between multiple systems or applications.
Typically, the token generation system 200 is in operative communication with the managing entity system 400, via the network 101, which may be the internet, an intranet or the like. In
The user device 104 may comprise a mobile communication device, such as a cellular telecommunications device (i.e., a smart phone or mobile phone), a computing device such as a laptop computer, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile internet accessing device, or other mobile device including, but not limited to portable digital assistants (PDAs), pagers, mobile televisions, gaming devices, laptop computers, cameras, video recorders, audio/video player, radio, GPS devices, any combination of the aforementioned, or the like. The user device is described in greater detail with respect to
The managing entity system 300 may comprise a communication module and memory not illustrated and may be configured to establish operative communication channels with the third party system(s) 400 and a user device 104 via a network 101. The managing entity may comprise a user data repository which stores user account and/or user historical data. This data may be used by the managing entity to authenticate communications between the user device 104 and the third party system(s) 400. In some embodiments, the managing entity system is in operative communication with the token generation system 200 via a private communication channel. The private communication channel may be via a network 101 or the token generation system 200 may be fully integrated within the managing entity system 400.
As will be discussed in greater detail in
The communication device 244 may generally include a modem, server, transceiver, and/or other devices for communicating with other devices on the network 101. The network communication device 244 may be a communication interface having one or more communication devices configured to communicate with one or more other devices on the network 101, such as the token generation system 200, the user device 104, other processing systems, data systems, etc.
Additionally, referring to the token generation system 200 illustrated in
The memory device 250 within the token generation system 200 may generally refer to a device or combination of devices that store one or more forms of computer-readable media for storing data and/or computer-executable program code/instructions. For example, the memory device 250 may include any computer memory that provides an actual or virtual space to temporarily or permanently store data and/or commands provided to the processing device 242 when it carries out its functions described herein.
The mobile device 104 may generally include a processing device or processor 310 communicably coupled to devices such as, a memory device 320, user output devices 330 (for example, a user display device 332, or a speaker 334), user input devices 340 (such as a microphone, keypad, touchpad, touch screen, fingerprint scanner, camera, and/or the like), a communication device or network interface device 360, one or more chips, and the like.
The processor 310 may include functionality to operate one or more software programs or applications, which may be stored in the memory device 320. For example, the processor 310 may be capable of operating applications such as the managing entity application 325, one or more third party applications 323, a historical datastore 324, or a web browser application. The managing entity application 325 may then allow the mobile device 104 to transmit and receive data and instructions to or from the managing entity system 300 (for example, via wireless communication or NFC channels), data and instructions to or from the processing system 200, web content, such as, for example, location-based content and/or other web page content, according to a Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), and/or the like.
The processor 310 may be configured to use the communication device 360 to communicate with one or more other devices on a network 101 such as, but not limited to the managing entity system 300 and the token generation system 200. The processor 310 may be configured to provide signals to and receive signals from the communication device 360. The signals may include signaling information in accordance with the air interface standard of the applicable BLE standard, cellular system of the wireless telephone network and the like, that may be part of the network 101. In this regard, the mobile device 104 may be configured to operate with one or more air interface standards, communication protocols, modulation types, and access types. By way of illustration, the mobile device 104 may be configured to operate in accordance with any of a number of first, second, third, and/or fourth-generation communication protocols and/or the like. For example, the mobile device 104 may be configured to operate in accordance with second-generation (2G) wireless communication protocols IS-136 (time division multiple access (TDMA)), GSM (global system for mobile communication), and/or IS-95 (code division multiple access (CDMA)), or with third-generation (3G) wireless communication protocols, such as Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), CDMA2000, wideband CDMA (WCDMA) and/or time division-synchronous CDMA (TD-SCDMA), with fourth-generation (4G) wireless communication protocols, and/or the like. The mobile device 104 may also be configured to operate in accordance with non-cellular communication mechanisms, such as via a wireless local area network (WLAN) or other communication/data networks. The mobile device 104 may also be configured to operate in accordance Bluetooth® low energy, audio frequency, ultrasound frequency, or other communication/data networks.
The communication device 360 may also include a user activity interface presented in user output devices 330 in order to allow a user 102 to execute some or all of processes described herein. Furthermore, the application interface may have the ability to connect to and communicate with an external data storage on a separate system within the network 101. As described above, the mobile device 104 includes a user interface that includes user output devices 330 and/or user input devices 340. The user output devices 330 may include a display 332 (e.g., a liquid crystal display (LCD) or the like) and a speaker 334 or other audio device, which are operatively coupled to the processor 310. The user input devices 340, which may allow the mobile device 104 to receive data from the user 102, may include any of a number of devices allowing the mobile device 104 to receive data from a user 102, such as a keypad, keyboard, touch-screen, touchpad, microphone, mouse, joystick, other pointer device, button, soft key, and/or other input device(s).
The mobile device 104 may also include a memory buffer, cache memory or temporary memory device operatively coupled to the processor 310. Typically, one or more applications 325, 324, and 323, are loaded into the temporary memory during use. As used herein, memory may include any computer readable medium configured to store data, code, or other information. The memory device 320 may include volatile memory, such as volatile Random Access Memory (RAM) including a cache area for the temporary storage of data. The memory device 420 may also include non-volatile memory, which can be embedded and/or may be removable. The non-volatile memory may additionally or alternatively include an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory or the like.
In some instances, various features and functions of the invention are described herein with respect to a “system.” In some instances, the system may refer to the token generation system 200 performing one or more steps described herein in conjunction with other devices and systems, either automatically based on executing computer readable instructions of the memory device 250, or in response to receiving control instructions from the managing entity system 300. In some instances, the system refers to the devices and systems on the operating environment 100 of
It is understood that the servers, systems, and devices described herein illustrate one embodiment of the invention. It is further understood that one or more of the servers, systems, and devices can be combined in other embodiments and still function in the same or similar way as the embodiments described herein.
In some embodiments, the user device 104, managing entity system 300, and/or third party system(s) 400 may transmit data at regular predetermined time intervals, such as once per month, once per week, once per day, or the like. In some embodiments, the system may request new data transmissions at said regular intervals, at randomly generated intervals, or at any other predetermined cadence. After receipt of the data transmission, the system may store the historical datasets of the user 102 in a historical datastore 252. In some embodiments, the system may replace a previously stored historical dataset with a newly received dataset. Additionally or alternatively, the system may append a newly received dataset to a previously stored dataset to create a single, larger dataset.
The process may then continue to block 510, wherein the system applies, via an encryption engine 253, a series of encryption algorithms to a subset of the historical data associated with a user 102. The encryption algorithms may be dynamic, rotating algorithms such that at any given point in time, the subset of historical data used as well as the types of algorithms applied to each dataset in the subset may vary. In an exemplary embodiment, the encryption engine 253 may be configured to apply one hundred different encryption algorithms numbered 1-100 to any given dataset. In the same exemplary embodiment, the historical data associated with a user may comprise three years of historical account balances of a checking account, a previous week of viewing history associated with a video streaming service, and a previous month of transaction history associated with a virtual payment network. The encryption engine 253 may then shuffle, or randomly rotate, the encryption algorithms applied to said data. Therefore, at one given point in time, the encryption engine may apply algorithms 1, 10, and 20 to the years of historical account balances of the checking account, apply algorithms 45, 2, and 68 to the week of viewing history associated with the video streaming service, and finally apply algorithms 3, 97, and 23 to the month of transaction history associated with the virtual payment network. The results of said series of algorithms may then be strung together or concatenated to generate a unique authentication token as illustrated by block 520 of the process flow. By rotating both the encryption algorithms used, as well as the pieces of data being encrypted, the system provides a high level of security such that even if a user's historical data was compromised, it would be highly unlikely that an attacker would be able to recreate the authentication token stemming from said historical data at any given point in time.
The process may then continue to block 530, wherein the system transmits the generated authentication token and information identifying the user 102 associated with the authentication token to one or more third party systems 400, the user device 104, and/or the managing entity system 300 for storage. The transmitted authentication token may then be used for user identity verification or transaction authentication as is discussed in greater detail with respect to
The process may then continue to block 610, wherein in some embodiments, the system causes the user device 104 and/or the managing entity system 300 to transmit the stored authentication token associated with the user 102 to the third party system 400. Additionally or alternatively, the system may cause the third party system 400 to send a request to the user device 104 and/or the managing entity system for a stored authentication token associated with the user 102. The stored authentication token may be the authentication token which was most recently generated by the system, as is discussed in greater detail with respect to
The process may then continue to block 620, wherein the system causes the third party system 400 to compare the authentication token received by the user device 104 or the managing entity system 300 to the authentication token stored by the third party system (i.e. the most recently generated authentication token). If the received authentication token matches the stored authentication token, the system may allow the third-party system 400 to approve or authorize the request for access and/or information exchange, as illustrated by block 630.
As will be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art, the present invention may be embodied as an apparatus (including, for example, a system, a machine, a device, a computer program product, and/or the like), as a method (including, for example, a business process, a computer-implemented process, and/or the like), or as any combination of the foregoing. Accordingly, embodiments of the present invention may take the form of an entirely software embodiment (including firmware, resident software, micro-code, and the like), an entirely hardware embodiment, or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects that may generally be referred to herein as a “system.” Furthermore, embodiments of the present invention may take the form of a computer program product that includes a computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable program code portions stored therein.
As the phrase is used herein, a processor may be “configured to” perform a certain function in a variety of ways, including, for example, by having one or more general-purpose circuits perform the function by executing particular computer-executable program code embodied in computer-readable medium, and/or by having one or more application-specific circuits perform the function.
It will be understood that any suitable computer-readable medium may be utilized. The computer-readable medium may include, but is not limited to, a non-transitory computer-readable medium, such as a tangible electronic, magnetic, optical, infrared, electromagnetic, and/or semiconductor system, apparatus, and/or device. For example, in some embodiments, the non-transitory computer-readable medium includes a tangible medium such as a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM or Flash memory), a compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), and/or some other tangible optical and/or magnetic storage device. In other embodiments of the present invention, however, the computer-readable medium may be transitory, such as a propagation signal including computer-executable program code portions embodied therein.
It will also be understood that one or more computer-executable program code portions for carrying out the specialized operations of the present invention may be required on the specialized computer include object-oriented, scripted, and/or unscripted programming languages, such as, for example, Java, Perl, Smalltalk, C++, SQL, Python, Objective C, and/or the like. In some embodiments, the one or more computer-executable program code portions for carrying out operations of embodiments of the present invention are written in conventional procedural programming languages, such as the “C” programming languages and/or similar programming languages. The computer program code may alternatively or additionally be written in one or more multi-paradigm programming languages, such as, for example, F#.
Embodiments of the present invention are described above with reference to flowcharts and/or block diagrams. It will be understood that steps of the processes described herein may be performed in orders different than those illustrated in the flowcharts. In other words, the processes represented by the blocks of a flowchart may, in some embodiments, be in performed in an order other that the order illustrated, may be combined or divided, or may be performed simultaneously. It will also be understood that the blocks of the block diagrams illustrated, in some embodiments, merely conceptual delineations between systems and one or more of the systems illustrated by a block in the block diagrams may be combined or share hardware and/or software with another one or more of the systems illustrated by a block in the block diagrams. Likewise, a device, system, apparatus, and/or the like may be made up of one or more devices, systems, apparatuses, and/or the like. For example, where a processor is illustrated or described herein, the processor may be made up of a plurality of microprocessors or other processing devices which may or may not be coupled to one another. Likewise, where a memory is illustrated or described herein, the memory may be made up of a plurality of memory devices which may or may not be coupled to one another.
It will also be understood that the one or more computer-executable program code portions may be stored in a transitory or non-transitory computer-readable medium (e.g., a memory, and the like) that can direct a computer and/or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the computer-executable program code portions stored in the computer-readable medium produce an article of manufacture, including instruction mechanisms which implement the steps and/or functions specified in the flowchart(s) and/or block diagram block(s).
The one or more computer-executable program code portions may also be loaded onto a computer and/or other programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer and/or other programmable apparatus. In some embodiments, this produces a computer-implemented process such that the one or more computer-executable program code portions which execute on the computer and/or other programmable apparatus provide operational steps to implement the steps specified in the flowchart(s) and/or the functions specified in the block diagram block(s). Alternatively, computer-implemented steps may be combined with operator and/or human-implemented steps in order to carry out an embodiment of the present invention.
While certain exemplary embodiments have been described and shown in the accompanying drawings, it is to be understood that such embodiments are merely illustrative of, and not restrictive on, the broad invention, and that this invention not be limited to the specific constructions and arrangements shown and described, since various other changes, combinations, omissions, modifications and substitutions, in addition to those set forth in the above paragraphs, are possible. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that various adaptations and modifications of the just described embodiments can be configured without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention. Therefore, it is to be understood that, within the scope of the appended claims, the invention may be practiced other than as specifically described herein.
