Authentication system for electronic transactions

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to an authentication system, in which a user of a system authenticates himself against that system by entering an authentication code into that system, which is examined for validity by the system.

Such an authentication system is generally known. Often alphanumeric passwords are used for authentication, which are entered by the user. If a fixed password is used, it has the drawback that the password can be stolen or copied and then misused. For that reason there are also one time password (OTP) systems, where a password is only used once.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention provides an OTP system in which the OTP generated by an OTP generator is transferred on the one hand to the system requesting authentication and on the other hand is transferred to the user, the OTP being addressed to a unique user address. Naturally, the transfer medium must be intruder proof. Preferably, a strictly personal user terminal is used, such as a (GSM) terminal that is equipped with a Security & Identification Module (SIM).

The invention will be explained in more detail below with reference to an exemplary embodiment.

IMPLEMENTATION EXAMPLE

Figure 1 shows very schematically an embodiment of the invention. A terminal 2, a server 3 and an authentication server 4 are connected to an IP-capable network 1 (internet). A Short Message Service (SMS) server 5 and a base station 7, which can be connected, are connected to a GSM-capable network 6. with a GSM terminal 8. Of course there are in reality many more terminals, servers etc.

The operation of the authentication system according to the invention, performed in the system shown in figure 1 is as follows.

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A user connects to server 3 via terminal 2 and the internet 1 to use a service that requires authentication. To this end, the server 3 sends an HTML-coded message to the terminal, in which the user is requested to enter the telephone number of the mobile telephone 8. The server 3 sends a request to authentication server 4 to generate a (random) authentication code and have it transmitted to the user. The server 3 then sends the user the request to wait for an SMS message to be received on her mobile telephone with the requested authentication code. In the meantime, that code is generated by server 4 and sent to both SMS server 5 and server 3. The SMS server 5 sends the code, in the form of an SMS message, to the mobile telephone 8, which shows the received code on the screen. The user reads that and passes the code to the server 3 via her terminal. This compares the code received from the terminal 2 with the code received directly from the server 4. By agreement, the service requested by the user is released.

It is noted that the links between servers 3, 4 and 5 must be secure. It can be (other than the figure indicates) connections outside the IP network or realized via the IP network, but then secured, for example by firewalls etc. Server 4 can also be incorporated in server 3, which also increases security.

Instead of a telephone, other types of receivers can also be used, for example a paging receiver. However, these types of receivers are less intruder-proof today than the current GSM terminals. Nor is it necessarily necessary to use a radio receiver: any medium is suitable, provided that the link from the code generator (authentication server) to the receiver is sufficiently secure with the user. In principle, the same medium can be used as the medium with which the terminal is connected to the server (3) requesting authentication. A medium can be a secured virtual channel or a Virtual Private

Network (VPN) are used.

In the above it is proposed that the user reads the received authentication code (from the screen of her GSM device) and passes it on to the server 3 by transferring that code via her keyboard.

100 ^ 409 types. In itself it is of course nicer to send the authentication code received at the user location directly to the server 3 without having to retype it. For example, this could be done by using a local, direct data connection between the GSM receiver and data terminal 2. The data terminal can - via an appropriate application program - read in the received authentication code and pass it on to server 3. Also, the authentication code receiver 8 can be incorporated in the terminal 2. If the same medium were to be used as for the connection between the terminal 2 and the server 3, in this case the Internet 1, then such a direct transfer of the locally received authentication code is even more obvious. The process is then:

- server 3 asks terminal 2 for authentication code;

server 3 requests server 4 to generate an authentication code;

- server 4 generates an authentication code and sends it to server 3 and to a user terminal: in the above thus via GSM-SMS (server 5, network 6 and radio connection 7-8), or, alternatively, via a secure connection via the IP network 1, to the terminal 2;

- the local user accepts the received authentication code and sends it to server 3; with a direct local link, the authentication code is received locally, via GSM or via IP, and then sent by terminal 2 to server 3; in the latter case, the user therefore does not have to do anything; even the authentication process for the user may take place underwater.