BACKGROUND

Relay attacks are possible in contact and contactless access transactions such as payment transactions. For example,FIG. 1shows a victim's contactless card40that may be remotely located relative to a contactless terminal10at a resource provider such as a merchant.

Although the contactless card40and the contactless terminal10are very far apart in this example, an attacker (e.g., two people working together to steal information or defraud legitimate users) can use two NFC (near field communications) enabled phones20,30, and two smartphone applications20A,30A on the NFC enabled phones20,30to conduct a relay attack. In a typical relay attack, the attacker uses phone A30with an NFC reader mode application to tap and communicate with the contactless card40in the victim's pocket. The attacker can use phone B20with an application20A, to tap and communicate with a contactless terminal10at a merchant or other resource provider. The two applications20A,30A on the two phones20,30are connected through the mobile Internet50.

Command messages issued by the contactless terminal10are relayed from phone B20to phone A30, and are then received by the victim's contactless card40. The victim's contactless card40then responds to the command messages. Access information on the card40(e.g., payment information such as a primary account number (PAN)) can then be relayed from phone A30to phone B20, and then to the contactless terminal10. By performing such a relay attack, the attacker can conduct an access transaction (e.g., a purchase transaction) using the victim's contactless card40without taking victim's card40from his/her possession. Although this particular example is one which involves a merchant, it is understood that this problem can exist in other situations where access to a resource is desired (e.g., an attempt to access a building, or an attempt to access data inside of a computer).

As shown above, data between two legitimate devices (the contactless terminal10and the contactless card40) are transferred without any change (or with a minimal change). There is a need for an attack recognition mechanism that can address this problem, preferably without substantially changing existing access transaction infrastructures.

Embodiments of the invention address these and other problems.

BRIEF SUMMARY

Embodiments of the invention can address the above problem and other problems.

One embodiment of the invention includes a method including generating, by a communication device during an interaction with an access device, a cryptogram using transaction level data and interoperability level data; transmitting the transaction level data and interoperability level data to the access device; and transmitting the cryptogram to the access device, wherein the access device or a remote server computer in communication with the access device validates the received cryptogram before allowing the interaction to proceed.

Another embodiment of the invention is directed to a communication device comprising: a data processor, and a non-transitory computer readable medium coupled to the data processor. The non-tangible computer readable medium comprises code executable by the data processor for performing a method comprising generating, during an interaction with an access device, a cryptogram using transaction level data and interoperability level data, transmitting the transaction level data and interoperability level data to the access device, and transmitting the cryptogram to the access device, wherein the access device or a remote server computer in communication with the access device validates the received cryptogram before allowing the transaction to proceed.

Another embodiment of the invention is directed to a method comprising: providing, by an access device, transaction level data to a communication device, in an interaction between the access device and the communication device; receiving, by the access device from the communication device, and a cryptogram generated using the transaction level data and interoperability level data; and generating an authorization request message comprising the transaction level data; and transmitting the authorization request message to an authorizing entity computer, wherein the authorizing entity computer approves or declines the authorization request message.

These and other embodiments of the invention are described in further detail below.

