Patent ID: 7188360

Claim:
A method for authentication of a user, wherein an application device requests a service for the user from the service provider and the service provider requests an authentication of the user by an authentication server before granting access to the requested service, wherein the following steps are performed: transmitting a user identity from the application device to the service provider, transmitting a request for confirmation of the user identity from the service provider, to an authentication server with the request comprising a service provider generated user identity for providing the user's identity to the authentication server and a first service identity for identifying the requested service to the authentication server, the user identity being identical to the received user identity or being derived from the received user identity by a conversion performed by the service provider (SP); the authentication server verifying the received identities; the authentication server deriving a second service identity from the first service identity for identifying the requested service to an authentication device associated with the user; transmitting a request for service authentication from the authentication server to the authentication device of the user with the request for service authentication indicating the requested service to the authentication device, generating a service authentication confirmation confirming the request for service authentication, transmitting the service authentication confirmation from the authentication device to the authentication server, analyzing the service authentication confirmation: confirming the user identity to the service provider according to the result of the analysis; and granting of service access to the user by the service provider according to the confirmation of the user identity.