Multichannel authentication and tokenization system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12463952-B2
Application number	US-202117516394-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 1, 2021
Priority date	Nov 1, 2021
Publication date	Nov 4, 2025
Grant date	Nov 4, 2025

Abstract

In some embodiments, apparatuses and methods are provided herein useful to multichannel authentication and tokenization. A system comprises a first authentication system serving a plurality of in-store point of sale terminals and implementing a physical channel authentication policy and a second authentication system serving a plurality of user devices accessing an e-commerce service and implementing an e-commerce channel authentication policy, and a tokenization system. The tokenization system being configured to generate a first token in response to receiving a first user credential from an in-store point of sale terminal via the first authentication system, generate a second token in response to receiving a second user credential from a user device via the second authentication system, and forward the first token and the second token to the retailer backend system, wherein the first token and the second token are generated based on a same tokenization protocol.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A system for multichannel authentication, the system comprises:
a first authentication system serving a plurality of in-store point of sale terminals and implementing a physical channel authentication policy; a second authentication system serving a plurality of user devices accessing an e-commerce service and implementing an e-commerce channel authentication policy; and a tokenization system coupled to a retailer backend system, the first authentication system, and the second authentication system, the tokenization system configured to:
receive, from an in-store point of sale terminal of the plurality of in-store point of sale terminals via the first authentication system, a first user credential received at the in-store point of sale terminal;
receive a second user credential from a user device of the plurality of user devices via the second authentication system;
generate a first token in response to receiving the first user credential based on a first tokenization protocol;
generate a second token in response to receiving the second user credential based on the first tokenization protocol;
forward the first token to the in-store point of sale terminal for use by the in-store point of sale terminal in communicating with the retailer backend system;
forward the first token and the second token to the retailer backend system; and
in response to receiving, from a requesting device, a third token based on a second tokenization protocol:
query a membership services database using the third token to determine membership details associated with the third token;
convert the third token to a converted token based on the first tokenization protocol using the membership details; and
forward the converted token to the requesting device for use in communication with the retailer backend system.

2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the physical channel authentication policy and the e-commerce channel authentication policy impose different requirements for authenticating user credentials.

3 . The system of claim 1 , further comprising the retailer backend system, and the retailer backend system is configured to:
associate the first token with user information associated with the first user credential in a user database; and associate the second token with user information associated with the second user credential in the user database; wherein components of the retailer backend system are configured to query the user database using the first token and the second token to retrieve the associated user information.

4 . The system of claim 3 , wherein the first token is included in subsequent communications between the in-store point of sale terminal and the retailer backend system to access the user information associated with the first user credential.

5 . The system of claim 3 , wherein the second token is forwarded to the user device and included in subsequent communications between the in-store point of sale terminal and the retailer backend system to access the user information associated with the second user credential.

6 . The system of claim 3 , wherein in an event that the first user credential and the second user credential are associated with a same user, the first token and the second token are handled identically by the retailer backend system.

7 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the tokenization system is further configured to generate a step-up token in response to receiving a step-up user credential from the first authentication system or the second authentication system.

8 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the first authentication system serves devices on a public network comprising the user device; and
wherein the second authentication system is part of a private network comprising the plurality of in-store point of sale terminals.

9 . The system of claim 1 , further comprising:
a third user authentication system coupled to a plurality of customer service contact center devices and implementing a contact center authentication policy; and the tokenization system is further configured to generate a fourth token in response to receiving a third user credential from the third user authentication system based on the first tokenization protocol.

10 . The system of claim 1 , wherein:
the first authentication system is further configured to serve a plurality of in-store customer service terminals; and the first token and the second token are generated based on the first tokenization protocol such that the retailer backend system can treat the first token and the second token as channel-agnostic.

11 . A method for multichannel authentication, the method comprises:
receiving, by a tokenization system from an in-store point of sale terminal via a first authentication system serving a plurality of in-store point of sale terminals and implementing a physical channel authentication policy, a first user credential received at the in-store point of sale terminal; receiving, by the tokenization system, a second user credential from a user device via a second authentication system serving a plurality of user devices accessing an e-commerce service and implementing an e-commerce channel authentication policy; generating, with the tokenization system, a first token in response to receiving the first user credential based on a first tokenization protocol; generating, with the tokenization system, a second token in response to receiving the second user credential based on the first tokenization protocol; forwarding the first token to the in-store point of sale terminal for use by the in-store point of sale terminal in communicating with a retailer backend system; forwarding the first token and the second token to the retailer backend system; and in response to receiving, from a requesting device, a third token based on a second tokenization protocol:
query a membership services database using the third token to determine membership details associated with the third token;
convert the third token to a converted token based on the first tokenization protocol using the membership details; and
forward the converted token to the requesting device for use in communication with the retailer backend system.

12 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the physical channel authentication policy and the e-commerce channel authentication policy impose different requirements for authenticating user credentials.

13 . The method of claim 11 , further comprising:
associating, at the retailer backend system, the first token with user information associated with the first user credential in a user database; and associating, at the retailer backend system, the second token with user information associated with the second user credential in the user database; wherein components of the retailer backend system are configured to query the user database using the first token and the second token to retrieve the associated user information.

14 . The method of claim 13 , wherein the first token is included in subsequent communications between the in-store point of sale terminal and the retailer backend system to access the user information associated with the first user credential.

15 . The method of claim 13 , wherein the second token is forwarded to the user device and included in subsequent communications between the in-store point of sale terminal and the retailer backend system to access the user information associated with the second user credential.

16 . The method of claim 13 , wherein in an event that the first user credential and the se

Assignees

• Walmart Apollo Llc

Inventors

• Paul Abhishek
• Bandyopadhyay Dipanjan
• Mani Prem Kumar

Classifications

• G06Q20/206

  comprising security or operator identification provisions, e.g. password entry · CPC title

• G06F16/90335

  Query processing · CPC title

• H04L2463/082

  applying multi-factor authentication · CPC title

• H04L63/20

  for managing network security; network security policies in general (filtering policies H04L63/0227) · CPC title

• G06Q30/06

  Buying, selling or leasing transactions · CPC title