POSTAL COUNTER POSTAGE EVIDENCING SYSTEM WITH CLOSED LOOP VERIFICATION

摘要

A method and system (13)for auditing postage dispensing transaction at a postal facility includes the steps of: receiving in a secure processor based device a request to dispense an amount of postage; updating accounting data within the secure processor based device to account for the amount of postage; cryptographically securing the updates accounting data in the secure processor based device (15); dispensing the amount of postage by generating and applying the cryptographically, secured, updated accounting data to a mailpiece. The method further includes receiving cash value for the amount of postage dispensed; sending from the secure processor based device to an administrative computer (17) a cryptographically secure message including the updated accounting data; obtaining and comparing, the updated accounting data from the secure massage with the cash value received and previous updated accounting data received from a previous secure message from the secure processor based device, and determine whether any inconsistencies exist.