Temporary Access Code Authentication for Web Support Context
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing systems for user authentication in Internet Resource Providers (IRPs) lack efficient mechanisms for customer support, requiring users to remember complex credentials or provide additional authentication during support inquiries, which can hinder quick assistance.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of a Temporary Access Code (TAC) system, where IRPs generate a unique random string upon user request, allowing temporary authentication for customer support without additional credentials, linking the TAC with user activities in a database for context-based assistance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If users are required to provide additional authentication credentials during customer support inquiries, then security is improved, but support efficiency deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary action by capturing user activity data and generating a TAC in advance during the user's login session. The TAC is pre-associated with user activities before the support inquiry occurs, so that when support is needed, the authentication and context retrieval are already prepared, eliminating the need for additional credentials during support inquiries.
Solution Approach 2:
The TAC serves as an intermediary element that bridges the user's login credentials and the support representative's need for authentication and context. Instead of requiring users to re-provide credentials during support, the TAC acts as a mediator that contains both authentication information and activity context, allowing support representatives to access user information without additional authentication steps.
2Reliability
If users must remember complex login credentials for customer support, then authentication reliability is improved, but user convenience deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system extracts the authentication burden from the user by generating a TAC that automatically contains the user's activity context. The TAC is generated by the system without requiring the user to remember or provide additional credentials during support inquiries, thus removing the cognitive load of remembering complex credentials while maintaining secure authentication.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs self-service by automatically capturing user activities, generating TACs, and associating them with user contexts without requiring user intervention. The system manages the authentication and context retrieval processes autonomously, eliminating the need for users to remember complex credentials or provide additional information during support inquiries.
3Loss of information
If the system stores and links TACs with user activities in a database, then support context availability is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system merges multiple functions into a single TAC structure: authentication verification, activity context storage, and support representative information are combined into one integrated database record. This consolidation reduces the need for multiple separate database tables and complex queries, making the system more manageable while maintaining comprehensive support context availability.
Data Source
AI summary
An Internet resource provider (IRP) may authenticate a user and, upon a successful authentication, allow the user to perform one or more actions on webpages that are within an account of the user. The IPR may store the most recent actions of the user in a temporary access code (TAC) database. If the user has a problem, the user may select a TAC button on a webpage within the account of the user. The IPR may generate a TAC, store the TAC in association with the recent activities of the user in the TAC database and transmit the TAC to the user. The user may contact and provide the TAC to a customer support service center. The customer support service center may authenticate the user based solely on the TAC and determine the one or more recent actions of the user in the TAC database. The customer support service center may provide assistance to the user based at least partially on the one or more recent actions of the user.