Patent Issued for Block chain authentication systems and methods (USPTO 11032286)

2021 JUN 25 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- According to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx journalists, a patent by the inventors Buckingham, Thomas Bret (Fair Oaks Ranch, TX, US), Jayapalan, Vijay (San Antonio, TX, US), Oakes, III, Charles Lee (Boerne, TX, US), Prasad, Bharat (San Antonio, TX, US), Vijayvergia, Gunjan C. (San Antonio, TX, US), filed on November 30, 2016, was published online on June 8, 2021.

The assignee for this patent, patent number 11032286, is United Services Automobile Association (San Antonio, Texas, United States).

Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “The present disclosure relates generally to systems and methods for electronic authentication of users. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to multi-factor authentication techniques that increase security by providing complex authentication of a user, while reducing inconvenience to the users being authenticated.

“As electronic technology becomes increasingly affordable and powerful, commerce is increasingly conducted electronically online. Modern businesses typically offer access to services and sensitive data via online portals (e.g., the Internet), which may be accessed from numerous sites across the globe. Because the data and/or services provided by these businesses may be quite valuable, nefarious individuals may attempt to impersonate a user from one of the access sites, in an effort to gain unauthorized access to the data and/or to initiate unauthorized service transactions. To curb these efforts, businesses may implement primary authentication processes, as well as secondary authentication processes. For example, certain modern businesses have traditionally asked for username/password combinations as a primary authentication method. Further, these businesses may ask a user for answers to personal questions, which may act as a secondary mechanism for authenticating the user. Unfortunately, these secondary mechanisms may be quite inconvenient for the users. For example, the login process may become more complex, requiring a user to remember and enter answers to secondary questions. This may be quite cumbersome and inefficient. Accordingly, improved techniques for multi-factor (e.g., secondary) authentication are desired.”

In addition to obtaining background information on this patent, NewsRx editors also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “SUMMARY:”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. An authentication system for electronic data, comprising: a client system; a secondary device paired to a client device; at least one blockchain node, comprising: a blockchain node processor; and non-volatile storage, configured to store a block chain comprising secondary authentication information identifying the secondary device, wherein the client system, the secondary device, or both is configured to: identify that the secondary device is paired to the client device; and based upon the secondary device being paired to the client device, automatically register the secondary device with the at least one blockchain node by submitting secondary device identifying data as the secondary authentication information to be stored and associated with a primary authentication information in the blockchain node; and a backend authentication system, comprising a memory device with instructions that cause a backend authentication system processor to: receive one or more electronic data action requests and the primary authentication information from the client system; authenticate the client system using the primary authentication information received from the client system; receive, at the backend authentication system, from the client system, device authentication information supplied to the client system from the secondary device, based on authentication of the client system, wherein the device authentication information is generated by the secondary device independent from input from the client system; authenticate the secondary device by comparing the secondary authentication information stored in the block chain with the device authentication information received from the secondary device; and execute the one or more electronic data action requests based on authenticating the secondary device; wherein the client system and the secondary device are both different than the backend authentication system used to authenticate the client system.

“2. The authentication system of claim 1, wherein the secondary device identifying data comprises a unique identifier of the secondary device.

“3. The authentication system of claim 1, wherein the secondary device identifying data comprises a location of the secondary device.

“4. The authentication system of claim 1, wherein the secondary device identifying data comprises a cookie, token, or both stored on the secondary device.

“5. The authentication system of claim 1, wherein the client system is configured to encrypt the block chain using a public key and private key.

“6. The authentication system of claim 1, wherein the backend authentication system is configured to decrypt the secondary authentication information stored in the block chain using a public key and private key.

“7. The authentication system of claim 1, wherein: the client system, the secondary device, or both is configured to register an additional secondary device with the blockchain node, by: identifying, in the block chain, trusted secondary devices associated with the primary authentication information; identifying an association between the additional secondary device and at least one of the trusted secondary devices; and adding the additional secondary device as one of the trusted secondary devices based on the association.

“8. The authentication system of claim 1, wherein the client system, the secondary device, or both is configured to: register the secondary device with the at least one blockchain node only after authenticating the client system using the primary authentication information received from the client system.

“9. The authentication system of claim 1, wherein the client system, the secondary device, or both is configured to: register the secondary device with the at least one blockchain node only after receiving a user confirmation within a limited time period of the pairing of the client device and the secondary device.

“10. The authentication system of claim 1, wherein the secondary device is communicatively paired to the client device via Bluetooth, near field communications (NFC), or universal serial bus (USB).

“11. A tangible, non-transitory, machine-readable medium, comprising machine-readable instructions to cause a processor of a backend authentication system to: receive one or more electronic data action requests and primary authentication information from a client system; authenticate the one or more electronic data action requests and the primary authentication information received from the client system in the backend authentication system; identify a user profile associated with the primary authentication information; identify that a secondary device is paired to a client device of the client system, wherein the client system, the secondary device, or both is configured to automatically register the secondary device with a block chain based upon the secondary device being paired to the client device by submitting secondary device identifying data as secondary authentication information to be stored and associated with the primary authentication information in the block chain; retrieve from the block chain the secondary authentication information associated with the identified user profile and the secondary device; identify, in the block chain, one or more secondary devices associated with the user profile and the secondary authentication information, wherein the secondary authentication information is generated by the one or more secondary devices independent from input from the client system; obtain, at the backend authentication system, from the client system, authentication data for authenticating the one or more electronic data action requests supplied from at least one of the one or more secondary devices; authenticate the at least one of the one or more secondary devices using the authentication data obtained from the at least one of the one or more secondary devices and the secondary authentication information retrieved from the block chain; and execute the one or more electronic data action requests in the backend authentication system based on the authentication using the primary authentication information and the at least one of the one or more secondary devices; wherein the client system and the secondary device are both different than the backend authentication system used to authenticate the client system.

“12. The machine-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the authentication data comprises a unique identifier of the one or more secondary devices.

“13. The machine-readable medium of claim 12, wherein a media access control (MAC) address of the one or more secondary devices is the unique identifier.

“14. The machine-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the authentication data comprises a location of the one or more secondary devices.

“15. The machine-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the authentication data comprises a cookie, token, or both stored on the one or more secondary devices.

“16. The machine-readable medium of claim 11, comprising instructions to encrypt or decrypt data stored in the block chain using a public key and private key.

“17. The machine-readable medium of claim 16, comprising instructions to register the secondary device with the block chain using a blockchain node, by: identifying trusted secondary devices associated with the user profile; identify the secondary device as an additional device associated with at least one of the trusted secondary devices; and add the secondary device as one of the trusted secondary devices.

“18. A computer-implemented method, comprising: determining that a secondary device is paired to a client device; automatically registering the secondary device with a block chain based upon the secondary device being paired to the client device by submitting secondary device identifying data as secondary authentication information to be stored and associated with a user profile and primary authentication information in the block chain; authenticating the primary authentication information of a request received from the client device, wherein the request comprises one or more electronic data actions; identifying the user profile associated with the primary authentication information; accessing the block chain comprising the secondary authentication information associated with the user profile, wherein the secondary authentication information is used in authenticating the request provided by a client system to a backend authentication system; accessing the secondary authentication information using a blockchain node that comprises the block chain; authenticating the secondary device using the secondary authentication information associated with the user profile and from the blockchain node and secondary device data received at the backend authentication system, from the client system, wherein the secondary authentication information is generated by the secondary device independent from input from the client system; and when the received request is authenticated, performing the one or more electronic data actions; and when the received request is not authenticated, denying performance of the one or more electronic data actions; wherein the client system and the secondary device are both different than the backend authentication system used to authenticate the client system.

“19. The method of claim 18, comprising authenticating the received request by: authenticating the request when there is a sufficient match between the secondary authentication information from the blockchain node and the secondary device data, or both.

“20. The method of claim 19, comprising acquiring the secondary device data by: determining a set of communicatively coupled secondary devices; and identifying the secondary device from the set of communicatively coupled secondary devices.”

For more information, see this patent: Buckingham, Thomas Bret. Block chain authentication systems and methods. U.S. Patent Number 11032286, filed November 30, 2016, and published online on June 8, 2021. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=11032286.PN.&OS=PN/11032286RS=PN/11032286

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