Patent ID: 6199051
Filing Date: 2001-03-06
Classification: G06Q,G07F

Abstract:
An open network payment system for providing for real time authorization of payment transactions, comprising:a plurality of client computers; anda payment computer;the client computers and the payment computer being interconnected by a public packet switched communications network;each one of the client computers being programmed to construct a payment request message specifying a payment amount to be transferred from a sender to a beneficiary, and to cause the payment request message to be transmitted to the payment computer over the public packet switched communications network;the payment computer being programmed to verify that the sender has adequate funds or credit having real monetary value, and to transmit an authorization message to the client computer over the public packet switched communications network, conditioned on at least one message transmitted over the public packet switched communications network in connection with the real-time authorization not being a replay of a message previously transmitted over the public packet switched communications network;at least one of the payment request message and the authorization message comprising at least one digital signature of components that include components derived from the at least one message, at least one of which digital signatures protects the at least one message from forgery, including authenticating an identity of one of a plurality of principals as an originator of the at least one message, at least one of which digital signatures protects the at least one message from all replay attacks that result in loss of value, and at least one of which digital signatures is verified based on a principal-specific or source-specific public key.