Patent ID: 8515847

Claim:
A system, comprising: a memory device configured to store instructions; and a computing device configured to execute the instructions stored in the memory device to: validate an identity of an individual requesting initial access to an online merchant by: generating at least one knowledge based authentication (KBA) question based on at least one of a credit history or a transaction history of the individual in response to receiving a validation request from the online merchant; and determining valid at least one response corresponding to the at least one KBA question by the individual; enable the individual to select at least one personalized challenge question (PCQ) and to provide an answer to the at least one PCQ in response to validating the identity of the individual; and enable subsequent access to the online merchant by the individual in response to comparing the answer to a subsequent answer to the at least one PCQ from the individual without prompting the individual for a personal identification number or a password.