First Data Corporation

Anne Mcafee Wheeler

Lynn Henry Wheeler

A system for making a purchase by a customer from a merchant, wherein an electronic message represents an instruction for payment from an account with a financial institution, includes a method of: associating a public key with identity information regarding the account; receiving by the merchant both encoding information for the electronic message and the identity information; forwarding by the merchant the electronic message, encoding information, and identity information; upon receipt of the electronic message, the encoding information, and identity information, retrieving the public key associated with the identity information; and determining a validation result as a function of the electronic message, the encoding information, and the retrieved public key. Upon successful validation, an account authorization is performed or payment from the account is made.

Three party account authority digital signature (AADS) system

A system for communicating electronically over a communications medium regarding an account includes (a) maintaining information pertaining to the account in a database such that the information is retrievable by a unique identifier, the information including security features of a device that generates digital signatures using a private key of a public-private key pair, (b) associating the public key of the device with the unique identifier in the database, (c) receiving an electronic communication including the unique identifier and a digital signature for a message generated by a suspect device (d) authenticating the message using the public key associated with the unique, (e) upon successful authentication of the message, identifying the security features retrievable by the unique identifier as being the security features of the genuine device, and (f) gauging the risk that said generated digital signature was fraudulently sent based on said identified security features of the genuine device.

Gauging risk in electronic communications regarding accounts in ABDS system

A method in which information pertaining to a device () generating digital signatures () is reliably identified includes manufacturing () devices in a secure environment () and for each device () before it is released from the secure environment: creating a public-private key pair (); storing the private key () within the device () for utilization in generating a digital signature () for a message (); and linking the public key () to a Security Profile () of the device (). The devices () then are released from the secure environment () and a digital signature () is received from somewhere () in the world (). The message () is authenticated using a suspect public key () and the suspect public key () is compared with the linked public keys (). A Security Profile () of the genuine device () to which belongs the private key () used in generating the digital signature () is identified when the public key () matches a linked public key (). A risk that the message () is fraudulently signed is determined.

Linking public key of device to information during manufacture

A method of managing accounts by an account authority for the same account holder includes associating identity information for each account with the same public key. A method for establishing a new account for the same account holder with each one of a plurality of account authorities includes associating respective identity information for each account with the same public key of the account holder. A method of setting up an account with account authorities for the later process of validating the identity of a sender of electronic communications representing requests for performance of actions regarding the accounts, each electronic communication including a digital signature and respective sender identity information, includes associating a public key with the account such that the public key later is retrievable following receipt of a communication based on the respective sender identity information in the communication, the public key being the same for each account authority.

Account authority digital signature (AADS) accounts

In a method of managing a database of existing accounts () for account holders (), each account holder () has multiple accounts with one or more account authorities () for use of a single device with multiple accounts, with each account of each account holder being associated with a public key of a public-private key pair of that account holder. A record of information pertaining to all accounts of a particular account holder is maintained in a central location by a central key authority. The information for that account includes the public keys of that account holder. The central key authority transfers information from the record for an account holder to a new account authority for which that account holder desires to establish a new account; the central key authority also receives information from account authorities for inclusion in the record centrally maintained for that account holder.

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Denver, CO, United States of America

Anne Mcafee Wheeler