Computer transaction security with delegated decisions

Abstract

A method for authenticating e-commerce transactions involves receiving, from a payment network computer, a first authentication request message to authenticate a transaction associated with a payment account, the first authentication request message being initiated by an issuer domain computer not implementing a 3-D Secure authorization protocol, determining that the issuer domain computer has configured, at the access control server computer, a decision function of a second portion of the 3-D Secure authorization protocol and in response thereto, transmitting, to the issuer domain computer, a decision request message and information associated with the transaction, the decision request message requesting the issuer domain computer to determine an action for authenticating the transaction based on the information associated with the transaction and one or more programmatic rules of the issuer domain computer, the transmitting occurring in lieu of the access control server computer executing the decision function at the access control server computer.