International Business Machines Corporation

Gene Tsudik

Ralf Ch Hauser

A method and an apparatus are provided for securely identifying a mobile user while avoiding trackability of his/her movements, i.e. it provides a way for a secure user identification in secrecy. The gist is to encrypt the user's identifier, and/or his/her password, and a synchronization indication, preferably a fixed time interval, under a secret one-way function and sending the encrypted message, called a 'dynamic user identifier', to the user's 'home authority' where he/she is registered. The home authority comprises correspondence tables listing, pre-computed for every time interval (or another chosen synchronization), the dynamic user identifiers and the corresponding true identity of the user and can thus quickly decide whether the received encrypted message originates from a registered user. On the other hand, an intruder is neither able to detect from the encrypted messages the identity of the user nor can he/she track a user's moves.

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Santa Monica, CA, United States of America

Gene Tsudik