Patent ID: 7082533

Claim:
A method of communicating electronically over a communications medium regarding an account, comprising the steps of: (a) maintaining information pertaining to the account in a database accessible by an authentication component, the information being retrievable based on a unique identifier, the information including security features of a genuine device that generates digital signatures using a private key of a public-private key pair, wherein the genuine device does not reside in and is not part of the authentication component and wherein the security features are indicative of the accessibility of the private key outside the genuine device; (b) associating the public key of the genuine device with the unique identifier such that the public key is retrievable based on the unique identifier; (c) thereafter, (i) receiving an electronic communication including the unique identifier, a message, and a digital signature of the message, the digital signature generated by a suspect device and the message comprising a request pertaining to the account; (ii) authenticating the message using the public key associated with the unique identifier; (iii) upon successful authentication, identifying the security features retrievable by the unique identifier as being the security features of the genuine device; and (iv) acting upon the account in response to the request as a function of the likelihood that the digital signature generated by the suspect device was generated by the genuine device based on the security features of the genuine device.