METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SECURELY CONDUCTING FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS OVER AN INSECURE NETWORK

摘要

The existing infrastructure of automatic teller machines and associated secure networks is used to securely authenticate people for financial transactions conducted at least in part via insecure networks such the as Internet. A person who wishes to transact on the web visits his or her local automatic teller machine and is authenticated based on credentials (e.g., possession of an ATM card and knowledge of a secret personal identification number) commonly used to authenticate certain financial transactions such as funds withdrawal. Based on this authentication, a digital certificate or other credential is issued that can subsequently be used to authenticate other transactions such as for example account debit requests the same person originates via different appliances and/or channels (e.g., over the Internet via conventional web access appliances). The method provides a high degree of security and authentication without requiring substantial changes to existing infrastructure and making use of a large number of already-installed automatic teller machines and associated secure networks.