US 7,451,926 B2Granted

Securing payment data

AssigneeMicrosoft Corporation

InventorsSergey Bykov, Charles J. Williams, Craig Jensen

Life of this patent

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Abstract

The claimed subject matter relates to an architecture or arrangement that can limit access to sensitive information by means of encryption. In particular, data obtained from a payment instrument at, e.g., a Point-Of-Sale (POS) location can be encrypted at an early stage such that a POS (or another) application does not have access to the data in an unencrypted form and/or does not have access to a means for decrypting the data. For example, a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) arrangement can be employed such that a back-end payment processor can define encryption algorithms, associate itself with a public key, and maintain a private key for decryption. The public key can be delivered to the POS location and employed for data encryption, and, moreover, the PKI can be regulated by the more trusted parties.

Claims7

Dependent claims

A front-end system that facilitates a more secure Point-of-Sale (POS) transaction environment, comprising:

a front-end interface configured to attach to a POS component, the front-end interface intercepts data obtained directly from a payment instrument;
and
a security component that queries an external back-end component for an encryption key during a transaction, receives the encryption key transmitted by the external back-end component as plain-text, and encrypts the data using the encryption key, the front-end interface outputs the encrypted data;
wherein the POS component receives a public key associated with the external back-end component with the public key defined by a financial institution, a financial association, or a payment processor, and wherein the public key is provided to the security component and employed to create the encrypted data, such that only the external back-end component decrypts the encrypted data with a private key, and such that neither sensitive data associated with the payment instrument nor tools needed to decode the encrypted data are accessible by the POS component.

1 more element

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 11/556,317Filed 3 Nov 2006
Published: US 2008/0109372 A18 May 2008
Granted: 18 Nov 2008
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification12 codes

G07F 7/1016
Together with a coded signal , e.g. in the form of personal identification information, like personal identification number [PIN] or biometric…
G06Q 20/02
Payment architectures, schemes or protocols: involving a neutral party, e.g. certification authority, notary or trusted third party [TTP]
G06Q 20/20
Payment architectures: point-of-sale [POS] network systems
G06Q 20/367
Using electronic wallets or electronic money safes: involving electronic purses or money safes