Patent ID: 8892873

Claim:
A non-transitory computer-readable medium embodying a program executable in at least one computing device, comprising: code that authenticates a user, the user being at a client; code that determines a user identifier for the user in response to receiving a communication address from the client; code that generates encrypted verification data for the user, the encrypted verification data including the communication address, the user identifier, a first verification code, and a timestamp; code that generates a network page including a form, the form including the encrypted verification data in a hidden field; code that sends the network page to the client via a first communication protocol; code that transmits a second verification code to the communication address via a second communication protocol that differs from the first communication protocol; code that receives the encrypted verification data and the second verification code from the client by way of a submission of the form; code that, in response to receiving the encrypted verification data and the second verification code from the client by way of the submission of the form, verifies that the user has acquired the second verification code using the communication address by decrypting the received verification data, retrieving the included first verification code from the decrypted verification data, and observing that the retrieved first verification code matches the received second verification code; and wherein the first verification code is unavailable in unencrypted form outside of the at least one computing device, and wherein the program is configured not to persist the verification data or the second verification code in data storage, thereby effecting a stateless verification by the program that the user has access to the communication address.