# US 7,891,563 B2 · Secure payment card transactions

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- Number: US 7,891,563 B2
- Document ID: US7891563B2
- Status: Granted
- Kind: B2
- Application number: 11/750,181
- Filed: 2007-05-17
- Published: 2008-11-20
- Granted: 2011-02-22
- Earliest claimed: 2007-05-17
- Assignees: Shift4 Corporation
- Inventors: John David Oder, II; John David Oder; Kevin James Cronic; Steven Mark Sommers; Dennis William Warner
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US7891563B2

## CPC

- G06Q 20/401: {Transaction verification}
- G06Q 20/20: Point-of-sale [POS] network systems
- G06Q 20/202: {Interconnection or interaction of plural electronic cash registers [ECR] or to host computer, e.g. network details, transfer of information from host to ECR or from ECR to ECR}
- G06Q 20/3278: {RFID or NFC payments by means of M-devices}
- G06Q 20/34: using cards, e.g. integrated circuit [IC] cards or magnetic cards
- G06Q 20/382: {insuring higher security of transaction}
- G06Q 20/3821: {Electronic credentials}
- G06Q 20/40: Authorisation, e.g. identification of payer or payee, verification of customer or shop credentials; Review and approval of payers, e.g. check credit lines or negative lists
- G06Q 20/409: {Device specific authentication in transaction processing}
- G06Q 40/00: Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
- G07F 7/088: {the card reader being part of the point of sale [POS] terminal or electronic cash register [ECR] itself}
- G06Q 2220/00: Business processing using cryptography
- G06Q: INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
- G07F: COIN-FREED OR LIKE APPARATUS (coin sorting G07D3/00; coin testing G07D5/00; {handling coins or paper currencies apart from payment activated apparatus G07D; payment architectures, schemes or protocols G06Q20/00})

## Abstract

Payment card transactions at a point of sale (POS) are secured in certain embodiments by intercepting, with a POS security layer installed on a POS terminal, payment data from the POS terminal, transmitting the payment data from the POS security layer to a server security application installed on a POS server, and providing false payment data from the POS security layer to a POS terminal application installed on the POS terminal. The false payment data in various embodiments is processed as if it were the payment data, such that the POS terminal transmits an authorization request to the POS server using the false payment data. In addition, the authorization request may be transmitted from the POS server to a payment gateway.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A method of adding security to a point-of-sale (POS) terminal which communicates over a network with a POS server, the POS terminal including a POS terminal application installed thereon and a payment card reader, the POS terminal application configured to communicate with the POS server over a non-secure channel to process payment card transactions, the method comprising:
installing a POS security layer on the POS terminal, the POS security layer configured to at least:
(a) intercept payment data received from the payment card reader when a user initiates a payment card transaction, the payment data comprising actual card data;
(b) pass false card data to the POS terminal application for use in place of the actual card data, such that the false card data is transmitted over the non-secure channel to the POS server in place of the actual card data; and
(c) transmit the actual card data to the POS server over a secure channel;
such that the actual card data is inhibited from being transmitted over a non-secure channel.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein the false card data comprises a false payment card number.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein the false card data is configured to be used as if it were the actual card data but does not correspond to a valid payment card account.

### Claim 4 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein the POS security layer is configured to generate at least a portion of the false card data.

### Claim 5 (depends on 4)

The method of claim 4, wherein at least a portion of the false card data is re-used as a token for an additional payment card transaction.

### Claim 6 (depends on 4)

The method of claim 4, wherein the POS security layer is further configured to display a substitute payment screen configured to enable a cardholder to provide at least a portion of the payment data to the POS security layer.

### Claim 7 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein the actual card data is obtained from a card swipe.

### Claim 8 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein the actual card data is manually entered.

### Claim 9

A computer-readable medium having stored thereon a point-of-sale (POS) security layer that is configured to be installed on a POS terminal that runs a POS terminal application and that communicates with a POS server over a network, the POS security layer comprising executable instructions that cause the POS terminal to at least:
intercept actual payment data received from a card entry device when a user initiates a payment card transaction, such that the actual payment data is not made available to the POS terminal application;
pass false payment data to the POS terminal application for use in place of the actual payment data, such that the POS terminal application transmits the false payment data to the POS server in place of the actual payment data; and
transmit the actual payment data to the POS server.

### Claim 10 (depends on 9)

The computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the POS security layer is configured to obtain at least a portion of the false payment data from a security application that runs on the POS server.

### Claim 11 (depends on 9)

The computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the false payment data is generated using an algorithm that substantially guarantees that the false payment data does not represent valid card data.

### Claim 12 (depends on 9)

The computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the POS security layer intercepts the actual payment data by acting as a keylogger.

### Claim 13 (depends on 9)

The computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the POS security layer intercepts the actual payment data by accessing an input buffer on the POS terminal.

### Claim 14 (depends on 9)

The computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the false payment data comprises a portion of the actual payment data.

### Claim 15 (depends on 9)

The computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the POS security layer is further configured to encrypt the actual payment data at the POS terminal.

### Claim 16 (depends on 9)

The computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the POS security layer is configured to provide security to a preexisting non-secure POS terminal.

### Claim 17 (depends on 9)

The computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the POS security layer is capable of being invoked directly by a user action.

### Claim 18 (depends on 17)

The computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the user action comprises a hotkey press or manual key card input.

### Claim 19 (depends on 9)

The computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the POS security layer is capable of being invoked indirectly by entry of the payment data into the POS terminal.

### Claim 20 (depends on 9)

The computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the POS security layer is capable of being invoked programmatically.

### Claim 21 (depends on 9)

The computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the actual payment data is transmitted to the POS server over a secure channel.

### Claim 22

A method of securing payment transactions at a point of sale (POS), the method comprising:
intercepting payment data on a POS terminal, the payment data comprising actual payment data from a payment medium; and
providing false payment data to the POS terminal, the false payment data configured to be processed as if it were the actual payment data, such that the POS terminal transmits an authorization request using the false payment data in place of the actual payment data;
wherein the false payment data is configured to be stored in a transaction database as log data and wherein no complete actual payment data is stored at the POS terminal.

### Claim 23 (depends on 22)

The method of claim 22, further comprising transmitting the payment data from the POS terminal to a POS server.

### Claim 24 (depends on 23)

The method of claim 23, wherein transmitting the payment data from the POS terminal to the POS server further comprises transmitting the payment data over a secure channel.

### Claim 25 (depends on 22)

The method of claim 22, further comprising encrypting the payment data at the POS terminal.

### Claim 26 (depends on 23)

The method of claim 23, further comprising providing two encrypted versions of the payment data, wherein one version of encrypted data is not decryptable at the POS server and another version of encrypted data is decryptable at the POS server.

### Claim 27 (depends on 22)

The method of claim 22, further comprising encrypting a personal identification number (PIN) of the payment medium using the payment data.

### Claim 28 (depends on 26)

The method of claim 26, further comprising destroying the version of encrypted data that is decryptable at the POS server.

### Claim 29 (depends on 26)

The method of claim 26, further comprising destroying the version of encrypted data that is decryptable at the POS server after a time-out period.

### Claim 30 (depends on 23)

The method of claim 23, wherein the POS terminal transmits the authorization request using the false payment data over a non-secure channel.

### Claim 31 (depends on 22)

The method of claim 22, wherein the false payment data has a card-swipe compatible format.

### Claim 32 (depends on 31)

The method of claim 31, further comprising generating the false payment data using an algorithm that substantially guarantees that the false payment data does not represent valid payment data.

### Claim 33 (depends on 22)

The method of claim 22, wherein intercepting the payment data on a POS terminal comprises accessing an input buffer on the POS terminal.

### Claim 34 (depends on 22)

The method of claim 22, further comprising displaying a substitute payment screen configured to facilitate the intercepting of the payment data on the POS terminal.

### Claim 35 (depends on 22)

The method of claim 22, wherein the payment medium is a payment card.

### Claim 36 (depends on 22)

The method of claim 22, wherein the payment medium is a radio frequency identification (RFID) device.

### Claim 37 (depends on 22)

The method of claim 22, wherein the payment data further comprises at least one of a personal identification number (PIN), a signature, biometric data, an expiration date, a cardholder name, a card security code, or a dynamic security code.

### Claim 38 (depends on 22)

The method of claim 22, wherein at least a portion of the false payment data is derived from a range of card numbers regarded as invalid by one or more card associations.

### Claim 39

A method of providing false payment data for use in place of actual payment data at a point of sale (POS) to inhibit the transmission of actual payment data over a non-secure channel, the method comprising:
capturing payment data on a POS terminal, the payment data comprising actual card data from a payment card;
generating false card data configured to be processed as if it were the actual card data, the false card data configured such that a Luhn modulus 10 test performed on the false card data determines that the false card data comprises an invalid payment card number; and
providing the false card data to the POS terminal, such that the POS terminal transmits an authorization request to the POS server using the false card data in place of the actual card data.

### Claim 40 (depends on 39)

The method of claim 39, further comprising providing the actual card data to the POS server over a secure channel.