Mobile Payment Data Splitting for Secure Wallet Storage
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing payment systems are vulnerable to security breaches as they distribute responsibility for security across multiple systems, making it difficult for customers to assess security and increasing the risk of sensitive financial data being exposed to attackers.
Innovation Solution
A payment system that uses data splitting techniques to securely store payment information on both a customer's mobile device and a secure payment system, requiring access to both to recover the information, and provides a cryptographically signed message for authentication to reduce fraud vulnerability.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If payment information is stored in a distributed manner across multiple systems, then security against single-point failures is improved, but system complexity and difficulty of security assessment increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides payment information into two separate fragments: a first fragment stored on the customer's mobile device and a second fragment stored on the payment system server. Both fragments are required to reconstruct the complete payment information, eliminating single-point failure risks while maintaining manageable system complexity through clear division of responsibilities.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a new dimension of security by requiring both device-held and server-held fragments simultaneously. This multi-dimensional approach (combining local and remote storage) enhances security without proportionally increasing operational complexity, as each fragment alone remains useless.
2Ease of operation
If payment information is stored centrally on a payment system server, then ease of access and transaction processing is improved, but vulnerability to security breaches and data exposure increases
Solution Approach 1:
By segmenting payment information into two fragments stored in different locations (mobile device and server), the patent maintains easy access through coordinated retrieval while eliminating the security vulnerability of centralised storage. The server only holds one fragment, making breaches less catastrophic.
Solution Approach 2:
The mobile device acts as an intermediary that possesses one fragment and can authenticate transactions. This intermediary role distributes trust and reduces the server's exposure, as the server never holds complete payment information and must rely on the device's authentication.
3Reliability
If complete payment information is stored on a mobile device, then control and security is improved, but convenience for transactions and accessibility is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments payment information so that the mobile device holds one fragment and the server holds another. This allows the device to maintain security control over its fragment while enabling convenient transactions through automated server communication and authentication, combining both benefits.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent merges the strengths of local storage (security control) and centralised storage (transaction convenience) by requiring both device and server fragments for complete access. This hybrid approach achieves both security control and transaction convenience simultaneously.
4Productivity
If sensitive financial data is transmitted over networks for processing, then payment functionality is improved, but exposure to network attacks and data interception increases
Solution Approach 1:
By transmitting only fragment identifiers and authentication data rather than complete payment information over the network, the patent maintains full payment functionality while significantly reducing network attack vulnerability. The sensitive fragment data remains securely stored locally on the device.
Data Source
AI summary
A payment system implemented on a mobile device authorizes and processes transactions. The mobile device generates a public-private key pair and receives payment information. The private key and the payment information are split into a local and a remote fragment. The public key, a private key fragment, and a payment information fragment are sent to a secure payment system, and the other fragments are stored on the mobile device. When a transaction is received by the mobile device to authorize, the mobile device sends a payment fragment to the secure payment system and receives a private key fragment from the secure payment system. The mobile device authorizes the transaction using the private key, recovered from the private key fragments. The secure payment system verifies the transaction using the public key and processes the transaction using the recovered payment information. Additional techniques to process transactions using data splitting are disclosed.