Patent ID: 7930264

Claim:
An authentication platform for authenticating a user desiring access to an entity system, the authentication platform comprising: two or more authentication modules, each authentication module operable to authenticate the user using a different authentication method; a decision engine in communication with the two or more authentication modules, the decision engine operable to receive an authentication request from the user, the decision engine operable to send one or more items of authentication information to a first authentication module to authenticate the user, the decision engine operable to receive a return from the first authentication module, the decision engine operable to determine if the user has been authenticated by the first authentication module, the decision engine operable to inform the user that the user has been authenticated; and a user interface, the user interface operable to receive the authentication request, the user interface operable to receive one or more items of the authentication information from the user; an institution interface, the institution interface operable to receive one or more authentication rules from one or more entities; an authentication module interface, the authentication module interface operable to send information to one of the two or more authentication modules for authentication, the authentication module interface operable to receive the return from one of the two or more authentication modules for authentication; a rules datastore, the rules datastore operable to store one or more authentication rules; and a rules engine in communication with the user interface, the institution interface, the authentication module interface, and the rules datastore, the rules engine operable to store one or more authentication rules received from the institution interface into the rules datastore, the rules engine operable to receive an authentication request and the one or more items of authentication information from the user interface, the rules engine operable to read a rule from the rules datastore associated with the authentication request, the rules engine operable to send the authentication information to the authentication module interface for the first authentication module identified in the rules the rules engine operable to receive a return from the first authentication module, the rules engine operable to determine if the user has been authenticated by the first authentication module, and the rules engine operable to inform the user that the user has been authenticated by sending a message through the user interface.