(Credit: CNET)
Apple
has cautiously been dipping its toes into the mobile payments pool. But
a freshly-published patent filing describes an entire backend system
designed to secure electronic payments made through your phone.
Published Thursday by the US Patent and Trademark Office, a patent dubbed "Method to send payment data through various air interfaces without compromising user data" envisions how electronic transactions would securely travel using your existing mobile phone's technology.
You'd start out by paying for an item using your phone. The
retailer's point of sale (POS) device would be connected to a backend
system designed to handle commercial transactions.A secure link between your device and the POS would be established using a wireless technology such as near-field communications. However, Apple has yet to jump on the NFC bandwagon, so the patent filing mentions Wi-Fi and Bluetooth as actually more desirable for maintaining the link over a longer time.
A second secure link between your phone and the backend server would then be established using a "shared secret" known only to the two devices along with an alias that identifies your credit card or other method of payment. That secret may contains symmetric keys, public private keys, or some other type of encrypted information.
A crypto key is generated from the shared secret and securely stored on your phone. The server then creates a key based on the secret and compares it with the key from your phone. If the keys match, the server deems the transaction legitimate, and your credit card is charged. If not, the payment is cancelled and the transaction denied.
(Credit: Apple/USPTO) 
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