The increase in electronic commerce has increased the focus on security of the electronic transactions using this medium of commerce. In the world of computer transactions and electronic contracts, there is no face-to-face acknowledgement to identify the consumer or other person wishing to perform the transaction. As institutions become more reliant on computers, they have modified their business infrastructure (i.e., their “business process”) in an attempt to keep up with electronic commerce. The business process of an institution includes the methods used to interact with a customer (e.g., how transactions occur, what information is required from the customer, help desks to support the customer), the information contained in customer accounts, the databases used and how they are modified by the institution, and personnel training.
Institutions and persons desiring to utilize electronic commerce are faced with several issues regarding electronic transactions. The first issue is whether the person requesting the transaction is who they say they are (“identification”). And the second issue is whether the requested transaction is actually the transaction intended to be requested (“accuracy”). In other words, whether the requested transaction has been compromised, either fraudulently or through transmission errors, during the course of transmitting and receiving the request.
To address the identity, of the person requesting the transaction, current financial business processes bind information in accounts to authenticate non-face-to-face transactions. For example, an account holder's mother's maiden name, a personal identification number (PIN), and a social security number have all been used and integrated into the current financial infrastructure to aid in reliably identifying someone requesting a non-face-to-face transaction.
To address the accuracy of the electronic message being sent and the identity of the person sending the electronic message, digital signatures are utilized. Digital signatures are used with electronic messages and provide a way for the sender of the message to electronically “sign” the message as a way of providing proof of the identity of the sender and the accuracy of the message. In a digital signature system, a sender digitally “signs” the message using a private key (encryption software used to create a digital signature). The receiver validates the sender's digital signature by using the sender's public key (software used to decrypt the digital signature) sent to the receiver by the sender.
While, digital signatures provide some assurance of accuracy for the message and the identity of the sender, they are also subject to security risks. These risks include compromised private and public keys or merchant fraud. To address the security risks and validate the digital signatures, computer technology has developed “certification authorities” to be used in a Certificate Authority Digital Signature (“CADS”) system. In a CADS system, certification authorities are third parties that essentially “vouch” for the validity of a digital signature's public key and, hence, the validity of the digital signature.
However, certification authorities used in the CADS system come with inherent risks, such as an expired certification authority and a compromised private key, which affect the entire public key infrastructure. In addition, the increased reliability provided by certification authorities does not easily combine with the business process currently established.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for a method to increase the reliability of electronic transactions while not imposing significant modifications on the business processes already in place.