Secure Access by a User to a Resource

摘要

In a method of approving access to a server network from any terminal requesting access, a communication request is sent from the terminal to a server on a first communication path. An image containing a series of symbols is communicated to the user on a communication path different from the first path. From the image the user calculates a response based upon a particular pattern in the image defining certain symbols which are then used in an operation to determine from the symbols a response which is different from the symbols. A comparison is made between the response received and a previously stored response to assess whether access should be allowed.

主权项

1. A method for approving access from a user location having a computer terminal of a user to a computer network or web resource on a server system comprising:
initiating an access request for an access session by the computer terminal of the user location on a communications link between the server system and the computer terminal; in response to the access request, sending to the user location a clue table image containing on the image a pattern of characters, the image for the access session being different from image generated for previous sessions; displaying said image including the pattern of characters to said user; to commence a session, causing said user to compute from the image a response; causing said user to enter the response into the computer terminal for communication to the server system; comparing said response received with an expected response computed from said image; and selectively providing access by the user to said server system on said communication link for said session in conformity with a matching result of said comparing; and sending an access approval/denial for the server system or web resource to the computer terminal; wherein the image is communicated to the user location by a different communications link than is the computed response; and wherein the response is computed by firstly selecting a selected set of the characters in the image by determining the location in the image of the characters based on a predetermined pattern of the characters in the image and secondly by carrying out an operation on the selected set.