Techniques for secure network communication

A machine-implemented system, comprising:

• a client with memory having executable instructions for a validator plugin that processes on the client of a user and within a World-Wide Web (WWW) browser that also processes on the client;
• and
• a server with memory having executable instructions for a server validator that processes on the server of a network;
• wherein the validator plugin supplies a secret for initial user authentication to a resource controlled by the server and the validator plugin supplies a unique sequence number for each transaction of a plurality of transactions of a secure session that the user makes via the WWW browser to interact with the resource controlled by the server during the secure session between the user and the resource over the network, each unique sequence number is never before used during any previous transaction of the secure session and is presented for a particular current transaction during the secure session, and wherein the server validator acquires the secret upon user authentication and ensures that before any particular transaction can proceed during the secure session that a new and unused sequence number is supplied from the validator plugin.

A machine-implemented system, comprising:

• a server machine having executable instructions for a browser configuration service that processes on the server machine of a network;
• and
• the server machine also having executable instructions for a server authentication service that processes on the server machine of the network;
• wherein the browser configuration service configures a browser plugin for installation and execution on a client machine of a user to supply and coordinate a secret between the user and a resource for use when the user attempts to authenticate to the server authentication service to establish a session with the resource over the network, said session comprising a plurality of transactions, and wherein the browser configuration service configures the browser plugin to supply a unique sequence number with each transaction of the session to the server authentication service, the unique sequence number was never before used during any previous transaction of the session and is presented for a particular transaction of the session, and wherein for each transaction attempted by the user during the session the server authentication service validates that a supplied sequence number is being presented for a first time and is unused, and when the sequence number being presented for the transaction is presented for the first time and is unused, the session is permitted to continue without requiring further authentication of the user, otherwise the server authentication service terminates the session.