Patent ID: 8621230

Claim:
A method of processing a personal identification number (PIN), comprising: encrypting at an owning institution processor a clear PIN input using an encryption algorithm to generate an owning institution encrypted PIN; translating at the owning institution processor the owning institution encrypted PIN using a shared encryption key to generate a first encrypted PIN; hashing at the owning institution processor the first encrypted PIN using a one-way hash algorithm to generate a first hashed and encrypted PIN in response to the clear PIN being securely encrypted, and the owning institution encrypted PIN being securely translated using the shared encryption key; storing at a third party processor the first hashed and encrypted PIN, wherein the first hashed and encrypted PIN remains hashed and encrypted while on the third party processor; receiving at the third party processor a second encrypted PIN generated from a clear PIN input; translating at the third party processor the second encrypted PIN into a third encrypted PIN using an encrypted PIN translation module including the shared encryption key, wherein the third encrypted PIN is in a form usable by the third party processor, and wherein the encrypted PIN translation module is configured to prevent the third party processor from accessing the encryption algorithm used to generate the owning institution encrypted PIN; hashing at the third party processor the third encrypted PIN using a one-way hash algorithm module to generate a second hashed and encrypted PIN in response to secure translation of the second encrypted PIN into a third encrypted PIN using the shared encryption key, wherein the one-way hash algorithm is contained within the one-way hash algorithm module, and wherein the hashing is performed at the third party processor by the one-way hash algorithm module; and comparing at the third party processor the second hashed and encrypted PIN to the stored first hashed and encrypted PIN to determine when the second hashed and encrypted PIN is generated from the same clear PIN input as that of the first hashed and encrypted PIN.