Obfuscated Cardholder Name Hashing for Chargeback Fraud Analysis
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Solution Overview
Problem
Payment networks do not transmit cardholder name information during chargebacks due to sensitivity, leading to delayed merchant decision-making and increased risk of PII leakage, hindering fraud analysis.
Innovation Solution
A collisionable hash algorithm is applied to cardholder names, creating obfuscated strings using a Caesar cipher, allowing secure transmission over unsecured channels without decoding, enabling fraud analysis by merchants.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of time
If cardholder name information is transmitted during chargebacks, then merchant decision-making speed improves, but PII leakage risk increases
Solution Approach 1:
A payment token is introduced as an intermediary element that replaces the actual cardholder name in chargeback transactions. The token contains encoded information that enables merchant decision-making while preventing direct exposure of PII. The token acts as a mediator between the need for information access and the need for security protection.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of transmitting the original cardholder name, a copy or representation (the payment token) is created and transmitted. This token replicates the essential functionality needed for chargeback processing while being inherently safer than the original PII data.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If cardholder name information is not transmitted, then PII leakage risk is minimized, but merchant fraud analysis capability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The payment token serves as an intermediary that preserves essential fraud analysis capabilities without requiring direct access to PII. The token contains sufficient information for merchants to perform fraud analysis while maintaining a security barrier.
Solution Approach 2:
The information is transformed from its original form (cardholder name) into a different parameter representation (payment token) that maintains analytical utility while changing the security characteristics. The token format enables fraud detection algorithms to function effectively without handling sensitive PII.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If traditional hash functions are used to mask PII, then PII protection is improved, but fraud analysis usefulness deteriorates due to collision avoidance
Solution Approach 1:
The patent inverts the traditional hash function approach by intentionally allowing collisions rather than preventing them. This inversion creates a masking mechanism that protects PII while preserving the ability to perform fraud analysis, as the controlled collisions maintain useful information patterns.
Solution Approach 2:
The hash function parameters are changed from collision-avoidance settings to collision-tolerance settings. This parameter change transforms the hash function from a traditional PII protection tool into a specialized tool that balances protection with analytical utility for fraud detection.
Data Source
AI summary
A method for obfuscated storage and transmission of Personal Identifiable Information (PII) includes applying a collisionable hash algorithm to each name in a dataset of potentially personal identifiable information to generate a set of obfuscated names. Applying the collisionable hash algorithm involves selecting a first group of characters from a name proceeding from left to right; selecting a second group of characters from the name proceeding from right to left; combining the first group of characters and the second group of characters to generate a sequence of characters; and applying a cipher to the sequence of characters to generate an obfuscated name for the set of obfuscated names.