Patent ID: 7653602

Claim:
An electronic commerce card authentication system comprising: a merchant system wherein the merchant system is configured to: send a verifying enrollment request to a directory server, the verifying enrollment request including at least a portion of an electronic commerce card account number; receive a verifying enrollment response from the directory server, the verifying enrollment response including a web site hosted by a central transaction server, the verifying enrollment response further including a pseudonym corresponding to the electronic commerce card account number, the pseudonym expiring after a predetermined period of time; send an authentication request to a cardholder system in a web page having an HTTP redirect command comprising the web site hosted by the central transaction server, the web page further including a URL for returning information to the merchant system, the authentication request including the pseudonym corresponding to the electronic commerce card account number; receive an authentication response from the cardholder system at the URL for returning information to the merchant system; and analyze the authentication response to determine if the electronic commerce card account number has been successfully authenticated and initiate a payment request process by submitting the electronic commerce card account number to an issuer of the electronic commerce card account number; the directory server wherein the directory server is configured to: receive the verifying enrollment request from the merchant system; forward the verifying enrollment request to the central transaction server; receive the verifying enrollment response from the central transaction server; and forward the verifying enrollment response to the merchant system; and the central transaction server wherein the central transaction server is configured to: receive the verifying enrollment request from the directory server; send the verifying enrollment response to the directory server; receive the authentication request from the cardholder system, at the web site hosted by the central transaction server in response to the HTTP redirect command sent by the merchant system to the cardholder system; forward the authentication request to an access control server; relay authentication information between the access control server and the cardholder system; receive an authentication response from the access control server; forward a copy of the authentication response to an authentication history server to be archived; and forward the authentication response to the cardholder system.