Facilitating and authenticating transactions through the use of a dongle interfacing a security card and a data processing apparatus

US8825928B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• VODAFONE GROUP PLC. · GB

Inventors

• David Jeal · Hungerford, GB
• George Stronach Mudie · Thatcham, GB

Key dates

• Filing date: Oct 9, 2003
• Grant date: Sep 2, 2014
• Expiry date: Jul 26, 2027

Classification

• Technology area (CPC H): Electricity
• CPC primary: H04L2463/102
• WIPO field: IT methods for management
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

A device or “dongle” (30) is provided for controlling communications between a Subscriber Identity Module (or SIM) (12), such as of the type used in a GSM cellular telephone system, and a computer, such as a WINDOWS® operating system-based PC (10). The SIM (12) can be authenticated by the telephone network, in the same way as for authenticating SIMs of telephone handset users in the network, and can in this way authenticate the user of the PC (10) or the PC (10) itself. Such authentication can, for example, permit use of the PC (10) for a time-limited session in relation to a particular application which is released to the PC (10) after the authentication is satisfactorily completed. The application may be released to the PC (10) by a third party after and in response to the satisfactory completion of the authentication process. A charge for the session can be debited to the user by the telecommunications network and then passed on to the third party. The dongle (30) provides additional security for the authentication data stored on the SIM by requiring a PIN to be entered and/or by only being responsive to requests received from the PC (10) which are encrypted using a key, which r…