Telephonic communications – With usage measurement – Call charge metering or monitoring
Reexamination Certificate
1998-04-30
2001-03-06
Kuntz, Curtis A. (Department: 2743)
Telephonic communications
With usage measurement
Call charge metering or monitoring
C379S115030, C379S144020, C379S145000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06198810
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for authentification of access authorization in a communication network wherein a preliminary, cancellable charging is charged to a caller on the network should the caller be unable to provide proper authentification of access authorization pursuant to predetermined criteria.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Authentification methods which check access authorization of a caller for a communication service, and which subsequently assign charges to the caller, are usually employed for some communication services that, for example are performed with the assistance of an intelligent network. Such network may include, for example, virtual card calling, universal personal telecommunication, remote access to virtual private network and multimedia services.
Such authentification methods are usually based on the input of a user identification (for example, a card number) and, potentially, an additional personal identification number (PIN). This authentification date must be kept secret from the user. However, such authentification methods can offer only limited security. Indeed valid authentification data can be fundamentally identified by testing a greater plurality of data. It can then be fraudulently used, for example, in order to implement communication processes at the expense of another person.
Acceptance problems arise when this misuse (illegal use) is to be made more difficult by employing numbers having many digits because extremely long inputs are then necessary for normal use (legal use).
Making misuse more difficult could also be fundamentally effected by charging a fee for unsuccessful authentification procedures. These charges, however, could not occur at the expense of the user since this user has not yet been identified at the time of unsuccessful authentification procedures. A charge instead at the expense of the terminal employed, on the other hand, is undesirable for the legal use of these services because it is contrary to the billing principle of these services. According to this billing principle, the terminal employed should remain free of charge because it can belong to a third party which is provided these services.
The consequence of these circumstances is that, when controlled, by a PC, for example, thousands of authentification attempts can be fraudulently automatically implemented (with prospects of success) without the fraudulent caller (illegal user) incurring charges therefor. The misuse can, thus, be commercially exercised.
Yet another instance of misuse is made easier due to the fact that unsuccessful authentification procedures are free of charge. For security reasons, access to the service is usually blocked for a user when a predetermined number of PIN entry errors is exceeded under the user's identification. Malefactors can use this in order to intentionally block access to services for other persons—and without incurring any charges.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is based on the object of making aforesaid misuse more difficult without thereby negatively affecting the legal use of associated services.
As a result of the inventive charging disclosed herein, unsuccessful authorization procedures that are caused by input errors continue to be free of charge up to a specific number for the normal user (more precisely, for the terminal via which the user calls the service) when a successful authentification ultimately occurs within the same call. In case of misuse, by contrast, the attempted fraudulent use becomes subject to a charge due to the great number of unsuccessful authentification procedures. The misuse thus becomes economically undesirable.
In an embodiment of the present invention, therefore, a method for authentification of access authorization at a network terminal for a communication service in a communication network is disclosed, which includes the steps of: establishing a predetermined charge criteria; recognizing a service call from the network terminal to the communication service; initiating a preliminary/cancellable charging for the network terminal after recognizing the call; cancelling the charging if a successful authentification attempt during the service call at the network terminal occurs prior to the predetermined charge criteria being satisfied; and activating the charging if the predetermined charge criteria is satisfied prior to the successful authentification attempt at the network terminal during the service call.
In an embodiment, the predetermined charge criteria relates to a set number of unsuccessful authentification attempts.
In an embodiment, the predetermined charge criteria relates to a time period within which a successful authentification attempt must be made.
In an embodiment, the method further includes the step of determining a statistical probability of achieving a random successful authentification attempt, wherein the predetermined charge criteria relates to the statistical probability.
Additional features and advantages of the present invention are described in, and will be apparent from, the Detailed Description of the Preferred Embodiments.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5438615 (1995-08-01), Moen
patent: 5479494 (1995-12-01), Clitherow
patent: 5495521 (1996-02-01), Rangachar
patent: 5566234 (1996-10-01), Reed et al.
patent: 5592537 (1997-01-01), Moen
patent: 5812650 (1998-09-01), Gammino
patent: 5875236 (1999-02-01), Jankowitz et al.
Lueder Reinhard
Zygan-Maus Renate
Barnie Rexford N
Bell Boyd & Lloyd LLC
Kuntz Curtis A.
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