Patent ID: 7814331
Filing Date: 2010-10-12
Classification: G06F,H04L

Abstract:
1. An authentication apparatus that authenticates an identifier ID allocated to each user designated by an authentication request comprising: a generating section generating randomly a human-readable presentation symbol string for an ID designated by a last authentication request after the ID is authenticated successfully; a storing section storing a transformation rule and a presentation symbol string to be associated with each ID; a sending section sending the presentation symbol string generated by said generating section, via a first communication path which is latest established for the authenticated ID, to a latest authenticated computer which is used by a user having the authenticated ID, in order for the latest authenticated computer to record the presentation symbol string into a portable information recording medium; an updating section updating said storing section to store the new presentation symbol string sent by said sending section to be associated with the authenticated ID; a receiving section receiving a new authentication request, that designates an ID and a human-readable transformed symbol string via a second communication path which is newly established for the authenticated ID, from another computer which reads the presentation symbol from said portable information recording medium, presents the read presentation symbol string to the user in order for the user to apply the user's transformation rule to the presented presentation symbol string to obtain a transformed symbol string, accepts the user's ID and the obtained transformed symbol string from the user, and sends the new authentication request designating the accepted ID and the accepted transformed symbol string to the authentication apparatus via the second communication path; an authenticating section authenticating the ID designated by the new authentication request in the case that the transformed symbol string designated by the new authentication request matches a transformation result obtained by applying the transformation rule stored in said storing section to be associated with the ID designated by the new authentication request to the presentation symbol string stored in said storing section to be associated with the ID designated by the new authentication request; and a servicing section providing an Internet connection service or an application service for the user of the authenticated ID to access the Internet or use an application from said another computer via the second communication path, wherein, after said servicing section begins to provide the Internet connection service or the application service via the second communication path, said generating section and said sending section regard the second communication path as the latest established path for the authenticated ID and regard said another computer as the latest authenticated computer, said generating section generates a new presentation symbol, and said sending section sends the new presentation symbol to said another computer via the second communication path, in order for said another computer to store the new presentation symbol into said portable information recording medium; and through the transformation rule associated with each ID, human-readable symbols are acquired from predefined positions of a human-readable presentation symbol string, the acquired human-readable symbols are arranged in a predefined order and a human-readable transformation symbol string is obtained from the arranged result.