TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to a security, and more particularly, to a method of performing a secure electronic transaction, using a credit card or a debit card or a derivate card, over an untrusted network.
BACKGROUND
In the emerging business activity, an internet retailer(s) having an e-commerce application to provide an internet shopping facility is catching the interest of a plurality of customers. The e-commerce application may help the plurality of customers to manage the time by doing internet shopping for their day to day household needs. Using the internet shopping facility, the plurality of customer may generally do variety of purchases ranging from shopping household groceries to purchasing airways tickets or so.
In e-commerce application there may be basically three types of electronic payment systems. The first system is an electronic currency facility, which allows the plurality of customers to exchange electronic tokens representing some value. The second system is a credit-debit system, which allows exchanging directly the financial data between the pluralities of customers. The third system is a credit card based payment facility where the credit card is been used to initiate an online payment instruction.
In the above mentioned pluralities of electronic payment systems currently available in the market, the credit card system is becoming practical for electronic settlement over network. The plurality of customer shopping over Internet may be interested in ensuring that their purchase related data and credit card number are safe. Similarly, the other entities involved in the electronic transaction including the financial institution (herein also referred as "credit card issuers") and the Internet

retailers (herein also referred as "merchant") may be interested in operating the electronic transaction, only if they are assured of security to their resources.
Thus, the success of Internet shopping facility may be properly realized, if the underlying electronic payment systems of the Internet retailers and financial institution (herein also referred as "FI") are capable of providing a secure electronic transaction.
To ensure secure electronic transaction, the existing credit card electronic payment systems may use the scheme Hypertext Transfer Protocol (herein also referred as "HTTPS") over Secure Socket Layer (herein also referred as "SSL"). The plurality of customers and the merchant may communicate with each other on the Internet using a HTTPS over SSL. The SSL is a protocol used to establish a trusted connection between two parties and HTTPS is used to send messages securely. Thus enabling the customer, merchant and FI to exchange their data using the trusted connection.
Also, there may be some schemes, which include a smart card for carrying out the secure electronic transaction. Here the customer uses the smart card by inserting the smart card into the smart card reader. The smart card reader may send an authentication message to the merchant. The merchant may forward this message to the FI server for further processing. The FI checks the legitimacy, including correctness and authenticity, of the data and may give a response to the merchant.
However, the existing electronic payment systems have few limitations. In the schemes including SSL or HTTPS, there is an overhead in terms of a public keys and certificates to be provided for security and authentication. Also obtaining the SSL or using HTTPS over a wireless is time consuming and many times not reliable or feasible. This may be due to the overheads required by these protocols. Where as, in the smart card scheme, authentication requires separate hardware and software including the smart card reader and specific software (e.g. device driver etc.) for achieving the required authentication and completing the electronic transaction.

Thus, there is a need for designing the scheme for performing the secure electronic transaction over an untrusted network, with out the use of additional hardware or public keys and certificates from a third party.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A holistic approach for securing an electronic transaction in an untrusted network is disclosed. Such approach may permit one or more electronic transactions to be secure, and may be helpful in overcoming problem related to hacking or tampering of customers' credit cards data in the conventional system.
In one embodiment of the present technique, a method of securing an electronic transaction in an untrusted network is detailed. The method comprises the step of generating an electronic coupon. The electronic coupon may be generated by utilizing a data or a time stamp or a card verification value (CVV) or a nounce value or combinations thereof. The nounce value may be obtained on each successful electronic transaction. Further, the method includes the step of encrypting the electronic coupon in an electronic batch. The encrypted electronic batch may also include the data or time stamp or a transaction identity or combinations thereof The encrypted electronic batch may be processing over the untrusted network. On receipt of the electronic batch over the untrusted network, the electronic batch may be decrypted. The data received from the decrypted electronic batch may be used to pull out the tupple data maintained in a database appropriate for the data to regenerate an electronic coupon.
In one embodiment of the present technique, the appropriate tupple data to regenerate the electronic coupon may include a customer critical data or a card verification value (CVV) or a nounce value or combinations thereof The regeneration of the electronic coupon may further include using the received data or the time stamp or combinations thereof.
The method further includes verifying the received electronic coupon by comparing with the regenerated electronic coupon to execute the transaction.

In another embodiment of the present technique, a method of performing a plurality of secure electronic transaction over an untrusted network is disclosed. The method includes a plurality of customers receiving a nounce value from a financial institution. The nounce value may be received from the financial institution on each of their previous successful transaction. The nounce value may also be received additionally on request from the respective customer to the financial institution.
The method further includes generating an electronic coupon by each respective customer. The electronic coupon may be generated by the respective customer by utilizing a critical data or a non critical data or a time stamp or a card verification value (CVV) or a nounce value or combinations thereof The electronic coupon may later be encrypting along with the non critical data or time stamp or a transaction identity (id) or combinations thereof in an electronic batch by a respective merchant. The encrypted electronic batch is processed over the untrusted network to the financial institution.
The financial institution may later decrypt the received electronic batch. The non critical data of respective customer may be used for regenerating an electronic coupon using a tupple data maintained in a database of the financial institution. The financial institution may verify the received electronic coupon by comparing with the regenerated electronic coupon to execute the transaction and update a transaction status to the customer or the merchant or combinations thereof
In yet another embodiment of the present technique, a method to preserve anonymity of the plurality of customer involved in an electronic transaction is detailed. The method includes a plurality of customers registering with one or more merchant using their pseudo-name. The respective customer may use different pseudo-name with the plurality of merchant. The pseudo name may be used to log into the merchant portal and initiate the electronic transaction by generating an electronic coupon. The electronic coupon may include a user critical data or a CVV or a nounce value or combinations thereof The respective customer may later enter the generated electronic coupon and a merchant non critical data or a time stamp or a user non critical data or combinations thereof in the merchant portal.

In one embodiment of the present technique, the method includes the respective merchant encrypting the electronic batch using at least one of the generated electronic batch or the data or the timestamp or combinations thereof.
The method further includes the merchant providing the encrypted electronic batch for executing the transaction with a financial institution.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The above mentioned features as well other features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention will become better understood when the following detailed description is read with reference to the accompanying drawings in which like characters represent like parts throughout the drawings, wherein:
FIG. 1 is a flow diagram depicting a method of securing an electronic transaction in an untrusted network, according to one embodiment of the present technique;
FIG. 2 is a flow diagram illustrating a method of performing a plurality of secure electronic transaction over an untrusted network, according to one embodiment of the present technique;
FIG. 3 is a flow diagram illustrating a method of preserving anonymity of the plurality of customer in an electronic transaction, according to one embodiment of the present technique;
Fig. 4 is a block diagram of an exemplary environment illustration a method of performing an electronic transaction involving a customer a merchant and a financial institution, according to one embodiment of the present technique; and
FIG. 5 is a system illustrating a generalized computer network arrangement, in one embodiment of the present technique.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION
The following description is full and informative description of the best method and system presently contemplated for carrying out the present invention, which is known to the inventors at the time of filing the patent application. Of course, many modifications and adaptations will be apparent to those skilled in the relevant arts in view of the following description, in view of the accompanying drawings and the appended claims. While the system and method described herein are provided with a certain degree of specificity, the present technique may be implemented with either greater or lesser specificity, depending on the needs of the user. Further, some of the features of the present technique may be used to advantage without the corresponding use of other features described in the following paragraphs. As such, the present description should be considered as merely illustrative of the principles of the present technique and not in limitation thereof, since the present technique is defined solely by the claims.
The present invention relates to a method of securing a plurality of electronic transaction in an untrusted network. The method also details an approach in maintaining anonymity of plurality of customers in a secure electronic transaction over an untrusted network. The inventive technique, to be detailed in the subsequent sections to follow, may also be used in the currently available secure charmel including HTTPS over SSL for performing the electronic transaction; however the inventive technique may be used alone to achieve a secure electronic transaction with out the need for secure channel.
The following description is presented to enable a person of ordinary skill in the art to make and use the invention and is provided in the context of the requirement for obtaining a patent. The present description is the best presently contemplated method for carrying out the present invention. Various modifications to the preferred embodiment will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art and the generic principles of the present invention may be applied to other embodiments, and some features of the present invention may be used without the corresponding use of other features. Accordingly, the present invention is not intended to be limited to the

embodiment shown but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and features described herein.
Referring to the figures. Fig 1 is a flow diagram depicting a method of securing an electronic transaction in an untrusted network, according to one embodiment of the present technique. In one embodiment of the present technique, the method comprises three steps, which includes generating an electronic coupon and encrypting the electronic coupon in an electronic batch, following which processing the electronic batch over untrusted network. Finally, on receipt of the electronic batch, decrypting the electronic batch and executing the transaction, if the received electronic coupon is of valid customer.
The method comprising; 1) generating an electronic coupon (block 105), 2) encrypting the generated electronic coupon or the data or time stamp or a transaction identity or combinations thereof in an electronic batch (block 110), 3) processing the encrypted electronic batch over the untrusted network (block 115), 4) decrypting the received electronic batch (block 120), 5) regenerating an electronic coupon using a tupple data maintained in a database appropriate for the respective data (block 125), 6) verifying the received electronic coupon with the regenerated electronic coupon (block 130), 7) generating transaction status as true/ valid (block 135), 8) generating transaction status as false/ not valid (block 140), and 9) updating the transaction status (block 145). Each of the steps will be explained in greater extent in the subsequent sections to follow.
The method of securing electronic transaction in an untrusted network may be initiated by a process of generating an electronic coupon as showoi in step 105. The electronic coupon may be generating using at least one of a data or a time stamp or a card verification value (CVV) or a nounce value or combinations thereof
In one embodiment of the present technique, the data used to generate the electronic coupon may include at least one of critical data or a non critical data.
The critical data may the customer critical data, comprising at least one of a credit card credentials or a debit card credentials or a derivative card credentials or a

name or a password or combinations thereof. The credit card credentials may be credit card number, similarly the debit card credentials may be a debit card number. The credit card or the debit card may be issued to the respective customer by a bank belonging to one or more financial institution (herein referred as "FI"). In the exemplary embodiment, the financial institution may be a VISA or a MasterCard or an AMEX or combinations thereof. The derivate card may be a card derived by a mere combination product of the FT with other merchant for the promotion of the product or service.
The non critical data may include at least one of a customer non critical data or the merchant non critical data or both. The customer non critical data may include at least one of a customer date of birth or a customer address or a customer mobile number or a customer age or a customer place of work or a customer attribute available in public domain or combinations thereof The merchant non critical data may be a shopping data comprising at least one of a list of goods or services to be purchased or cost of each goods or services to be purchased or quantity of goods or services to be purchased or combinations thereof
In one embodiment of the present technique, the time stamp used to generate the electronic coupon may include a transaction time or transaction date or both. The transaction time and date may be converted to Greenwich Mean Time (herein referred as "GMT") standard, to maintain the uniformity and to avoid misappropriation.
In one embodiment of the present technique, the card verification value (CVV) is a value. The value may be either numerical or alphabet or alphanumerical or special character or combinations thereof as provided by either the FI or the merchant or both on the credit card or debit card or derivate card.
In one embodiment of the present technique, the nounce value is a dynamically generated transaction number issued to the respective customer on each successful transaction by either the FI or the merchant. Initially i.e. before the first ever transaction, the nounce value may be set to some value, which the FI or the

merchant will communicate to the customer. The customer may use the communicated nounce value to initiate the transaction. On each sueeesslul transaction, a new nounce value may be communicated to the customer, whieh the customer may use to initiate another transaction. Additionally, if the customer losses the nounce value, the respective customer may request for the nounce value, which will be communicated to the respective customer from the financial instotution or the merchant.
In one embodiment of the present technique, the nounee value is communicated to the customer through an electronic mail identity (herein referred as "e-mail id") or through a short messaging service (herein referred as "SMS") or ix)th.
In one embodiment of the present technique, the process of generatiny the electronic coupon includes utilizing at least one of hash operation or an encrypt operation or both. The hashing operation may be performed using at least one of a binary numeral function or a comma separated value function or a tab separated value function or a Unicode character separated value function or both. I he eneryption operation may be a generally known encryption operation in the industry.
The process of generating the electronic coupon may further comprise utilizing sequentially the data or the time stamp or the CVV or the nounee value.
In step 110, the electronic coupon or the data or the time stamp or a transaction identity or combinations thereof may be encrypted in an electronic batch. The electronic batch may be encrypted using a unique key. The unique key may be specific to the respective merchant and the respective financial institution. The unique key may be derived based on a registration between the merchant and the FI. The unique key may be either of numerical or alphabet or alphanumerical or special character or combinations thereof The generated electronic coupon may be used to encrypt in the electronic batch. The data to be encrypted in the electronic batch may be the customer non critical data. The same time stamp used to generate the electronic coupon may be used to encrypt in the electronic batch.

In step 115, the encrypted electronic batch is processed over the untrusted network. Since the data including customer critical data or the CVV or the nounce value has another underdone double encryption, which includes generation of electronic coupon phase and encryption in the electronic batch phase, the data processed over the untrusted network may be secured.
In step 120, the electronic batch is decrypted using the unique key. On decryption of the electronic batch, the electronic coupon or the data or the time stamp or the transaction identity may be derived. The electronic coupon may be in a hashed form or in the encrypted form, based on the respective operation choose for the generating the electronic coupon. The time stamp or the transaction identity or the data may be used to regenerate the electronic coupon.
In step 125, the electronic coupon may be regenerated to determine the authenticity of the received data for executing the transaction. The received data, preferably the customer non critical data provided in the electronic batch may be used to find a tupple data, appropriate for the customer maintained in a database. The database may comprise the tupple data of the plurality of customer maintained by the FI. The tupple data of each customer may include at least one of the customer critical data or the CVV or the nounce value or combinations thereof. The regeneration of the electronic coupon may also be performed using at least one of the hash operation or the encrypt operation. The process of regenerating the electronic coupon includes using at least one of the received data or the received time stamp or the tupple data extracted from the database or combinations thereof.
In step 130, the regenerated electronic coupon may be verified with the received electronic coupon. The verification may include comparing the value attained upon regeneration of the electronic coupon using the tupple data or the data or the time stamp or combination thereof The regenerated electronic coupon is verified with the received electronic coupon to determine the authenticity of the customer.

In step 135, upon verification, if the customer is found authentic, a transaction status is generated with an execution result as valid. A new nounce value is generated based on the execution status as valid. The new nounce value may be entered in the tupple data, maintained in the database, of the respective customer. The transaction status may include at least one of the received transaction identity or the execution result or a new nounce value or combinations thereof In one embodiment of the present technique, the transaction status to the customer includes at least one of the transaction identity or the new nounce value or the execution result or combinations thereof In one embodiment of the present technique, the transaction status of the merchant includes at least of the transaction identity or the execution status or both.
If the customer is found not authentic, a transaction status is generated with an execution result as not valid as shown in step 140. The transaction status may include at least of the received transaction identity or the execution result or both.
In step 145, the generated transaction status is updated to at least one of the customer or the merchant or both. Before updating, the transaction status the transaction status is encrypted. The transaction status updated to the merchant may be encrypted with the unique key common to the FI and the merchant. Wherein the transaction status updated to the merchant may be encrypted with the CVV number of the respective customer.
Referring to the figures, Fig 2 is a flow diagram illustrating a method of performing the plurality of secure electronic transaction over the untrusted network, according to one embodiment of the present technique. The method illustrates the transaction including at least of the customer or the merchant or the FI or combinations thereof
The method comprising: 1) plurality of customers receiving a nounce value from a financial institution on each of their previous successful transaction (block 205), 2) generating an electronic coupon by respective customer (block 210), 3) encrypting the generated electronic coupon or the data or time stamp or a transaction

identity (id) or combinations thereof in an electronic batch by respective merchant (block 215), 4) processing the encrypted electronic batch over the untrusted network (block 220), 5) decrypting the received electronic batch by financial institution (block 225), 6) regenerating an electronic coupon using a tupple data maintained in a database appropriate for the respective data (block 230), 7) verifying the electronic coupon (block 235), 8) generating transaction status - true/ valid - the customer is authentic (block 240), 9) generating transaction status - true/ valid - the customer is not authentic (block 245), 10) updating the transaction status to the merchant and to the customer (block 250) and 11) delivering the goods to the customer, based on the transaction status updated to the respective merchant (block 255). Each of the steps will be explained in greater extent in the subsequent sections to follow.
In one embodiment of the present technique, in step 205, the plurality of customers receiving the nounce value. The nounce value is communicated to the respective customer from the FI or the merchant based on each of their previous successful transaction. Else, initially i.e. before the first ever transaction, the nounce value may be communicated from the FI or the merchant to the respective customer.
In one embodiment of the present technique, in step 210, the customer initiates the electronic transaction by generating the electronic coupon. The electronic coupon may include at least one of a customer non critical data or a customer critical data or a CVV or a nounce value or a time stamp or combinations thereof. The electronic coupon may be generated using at least of a hashing operation or the encryption operation. In one embodiment of the present technique, the hashing operation or the encryption operation may use an applet in the respective customer portal or the merchant portal for the generation of electronic coupon. The hashing operation may include binary numeral function or a comma separated value function or a tab separated value function or a Unicode character separated value function or combinations thereof to generate the electronic coupon. The customer may be asked to input the data at respective filed to generate the electronic coupon run through the applet.

The customer critical data or the customer non critical data or the merchant non critical data or the nounce value is detailed in the above section with respect to figure 1. The description of these are omitted or simplified in order not to eliminate the redundancy in the illustrative embodiments of the present technique.
In step 215, the generated electronic coupon or a customer non critical data or time stamp or a transaction identity (id) or combinations thereof is encrypted in an electronic batch by respective merchant. The respective customer may input at least one of a merchant non critical data or the electronic coupon or the customer non critical data or the time stamp in the merchant portal. The merchant generates the transaction identity for the data received from the respective customer. The merchant retains the merchant non critical data entered by the customer before encrypting at least one of the electronic coupons or the customer non critical data or the time stamp or the transaction identity or combinations thereof in the electronic batch. The merchant non critical data may be used by the merchant to determine the shopping details of the respective customer. The encryption of the electronic batch may be performed using a unique key. The unique key may be specific to the respective merchant and FL On generating the electronic batch the merchant may process the electronic batch to the respective FI for executing the transaction over the untrusted network, as shown in step 220.
In one embodiment of the present technique, the FI on receipt of the electronic batch initiate the process of decryption, as shown in step 225. The decryption of the electronic batch includes using the unique key, which is unique to the respective customer and the FI. On decryption of the electronic batch, the respective FI receives at least one of the customer non critical data or the time stamp or the electronic coupon or combinations thereof
The FI may later use the non critical data of the respective customer to extract a tupple data specific to the respective customer to regenerate the electronic coupon as shown in step 230. The tupple data of plurality of customer may be maintained in a database of the FI. The tupple may include at least of the CVV or the customer critical data or the nounce value of the respective customer. The tupple data

of the respective customer may also include other customer details, which are omitted or simplified in order not to obscure the illustrative embodiments.
The regeneration of electronic coupon includes the process of using the hashing operation or the encryption operation. The input to regenerate the electronic coupon includes using at least one of the received time stamp or the user non critical data or the extracted tupple data. The tupple data considered for regenerating the electronic coupon may include at least one of the nounce value or the customer critical data or the CVV as stored in the database for the respective customer.
In step 235, the verification of the generated electronic coupon with respect to the received electronic coupon is performed to find the authenticity of the respective customer to execute the transaction.
If the generated electronic coupon matches with the received electronic coupon the transaction status is generated with an execution result as valid as shown in step 240. The new nounce value may be generated and the same is amended in the tupple data of the respective customer. The transaction status may also include at least of the received transaction identity or the new nounce value or both.
If the generated electronic coupon does not match with the received electronic coupon the transaction status is generated with an execution result as not valid as shown in step 245. The transaction status may also include at least of the received transaction identity or the nounce value or both.
In one embodiment of the present technique, the transaction status which may be updated to the customer may include at least of the received transaction identity or the execution status or the new nounce value or combinations thereof. Wherein the transaction status updated to the respective customer may include at least of the received transaction identity or the execution status or both.
In step 250, the generated transaction status is updated to at least one of the customer or the merchant or both. Before updating, the transaction status the transaction status is encrypted. The transaction status updated to the merchant may be

encrypted with the unique key common to the FI and the merchant. Wherein the transaction status updated to the merchant may be encrypted with the CVV number of the respective customer. The process of updating the transaction status to the customer may be performed either through an electronic mail id, of the customer, over the untrusted network or through the SMS of the customer. The process of updating the transaction status to the merchant may be performed using the untrusted network.
In step 255, the respective merchant receives the transaction status for the respective transaction identity from the FI. On receipt of the transaction status the merchant decrypts the transaction status using the unique key and extracts the transaction identity and the execution status of the transaction. Based on which the merchant decides either to deliver the goods or services to the customer or withheld the shopping.
Referring to the figures, Fig. 3 is a flow diagram illustrating a method of preserving anonymity of the plurality of customer in an electronic transaction. The need to preserving anonymity may arise from the type of services or goods the respective customer is availing by the merchant.
The method comprising: 1) plurality of customers registering with one or more merchant using their pseudo-name (block 305), 2) each customer logging to the respective merchant with their respective pseudo-name (block 310), 3) initiating the electronic transaction by selecting the goods or services (block 315), 4) generating an electronic coupon (block 320), 5) providing the respective merchant at least one of the electronic coupon or a non critical data or time stamp or combinations thereof (block 325), and 6) respective merchant processing the electronic coupon with a respective financial institution for executing the transaction (block 330). Each of the steps will be explained in greater extent in the subsequent sections to follow.
In step 305, a plurality of customers registers with one or more merchant using their pseudo-name. The customer registering with the respective merchant is a one time process, in which the customer may enter his pseudo-name to hide his

identity with the merchant. The customer may additionally enter his e-mail id along with his pseudo-name.
In step 310, the customer may log into the respective merchant portal, where he is already registered, using his pseudo-name and initiate electronic transaction as shown in step 315. The customer may select the set of shopping items from the merchant, which may include a goods or services offered by the merchant.
In step 320, the customer generates the electronic coupon, comprising at least one of a customer critical data or a CVV or a nounce value or a customer non critical data or a time stamp. The critical data may the customer critical data, comprising at least one of a credit card credentials or a debit card credentials or a derivative card credentials or a name or a password or combinations thereof. The credit card credentials may be credit card number, similarly the debit card credentials may be a debit card number. The credit card or the debit card may be issued to the respective customer by a bank belonging to one or more financial institution (herein referred as "FI"). The customer non critical data may include at least one of a customer date of birth or a customer age or e-mail id or combinations thereof The electronic coupon generation includes the process of hashing at least one of the customer critical data or the customer non critical data. The hashing operation may include a binary operation where the entire set of data may be converted into binary number and may be summed, thus avoiding the identity to the customer to the merchant.
In step 325, the customer may provide the respective merchant at least one of the electronic coupon or the non critical data or time stamp or merchant non critical data or combinations thereof The non critical data may not include data which may reveal the identity of the customer to the respective merchant. The respective merchant may encrypt the one or more entities provided by the customer in the electronic coupon. The electronic coupon may also include the transaction identity to identity the customer transaction.

In step 330, the respective merchant may process the electronic batch with a respective financial institution for executing the transaction. Thus in the entire process of electronic transaction, the customer may not reveal his identity with the merchant.
Referring to the figures. Fig. 4 is a block diagram of an exemplary environment illustration a method of performing an electronic transaction involving a customer a merchant and a financial institution.
In the exemplary example a plurality of entities are considered to detail the method of performing the electronic transaction. The first entity is a customer named "John Wright" 405 who is one among the plurality of customer. The second entity is a merchant named "Amazon" 421 and finally the last entity is a financial institution (also referred as "card issuer") named "Visa enterprise" 470.
John Wright 405 may access the Amazon 421 web portal as shown in 410 and since John Wright 405 is accessing the Amazon 421 web portal for the first time, he registers with the Amazon 421 web portal using a pseudo-name, by clicking on the registration 425 option available at Amazon 421 web portal. In the exemplary example the pseudo-name that John Wright 405 might have chosen is "Casper" 405. Post registering with the Amazon 421 web portal, Casper 405 may sign in to the Amazon 421 web portal by clicking on the login option 430 available on the Amazon 421 web portal.
On successful login to the Amazon 421 web portal, Casper 405 may do the necessary shopping using the one click option available in the Amazon 421 or Casper 405 may go through the Amazon 421 website and selects the list of goods which he wants to buy from the Amazon 421 web portal. The illustration should not be restrictive with respect to the scope of the present invention. The shopping details may be reflected in the shopping window 440, specifying the goods or services opted and the quantity of goods or services or price of each service or goods in the window 440A to 440D. The shopping details are a merchant non critical data, which in our illustration is "Amazon 421 web portal non critical data. Casper 405 may initiate the

electronic transaction by clicking at generate electronic coupon 445 option available in the Amazon 421 web portal to execute his transaction. The option to generate the electronic coupon may not necessary be there in Amazon 421 portal, it may be available with the Casper 405 as a separate tool or a web portal service or both. The illustration should not be restrictive with respect to the scope of the present invention,
Posts clicking on generate electronic coupon option; an applet 450 may open seeking for Casper 405 at least of a critical data 450A or a CVV 450B or a nounce value 450C or non critical data 450D or combinations thereof. On successful entry of these data the applet 450 may generate hash value. The applet 450 will not be able to pass the information used for hashing operation to the Amazon 421 web server. Casper 405 may enter the generated electronic coupon in the Amazon 421 web portal, as shown in 455.
In addition, Casper 405 may enter the non critical information at option 460 available in the Amazon 421 web portal, as well the time stamp as shown in option 465 available in the Amazon 421 web portal. This information may not be critical in terms of privacy of Casper 405.
The critical data 450A of Casper 405 may be his name "John Wright" or account number "000011110001" or credit card number "1111-2222-3333-4444" or Card verifier value "567" 450B or nounce value 450C or combinations thereof.
The non-critical information 460 of Casper 405 may include age or gender or profession or combinations thereof. The nounce value may tell number of times Casper 405 has done successful transaction with Visa 485, which may be "10", The time stamp 465 during which the hashing operation is done is GMT standard.
Casper may click on submit option 470 available on Amazon 421 thus, enabling the Amazon 421 to create an encrypted electronic batch containing electronic coupon 455 or Casper 405 non critical data 460 or the time stamp 465 or a transaction identity (not shown in figure). The transaction identity is created by Amazon 421 to associate Casper 405 transaction with VISA 485. Amazon 421 may

retain the merchant non critical information 440. The encryption of the electronic batch may be done using a unique key specific to the Amazon 421 and VISA 485.
The encrypted electronic batch is processed to the VISA 485 via an untrusted network 480, as shown in arrow 475. On receiving the electronic batch from Amazon 421, VISA 485 may first decrypt the electronic batch using the unique key and extract the Casper 405 non critical data 460. Visa 485 may apply the intersection operation between the received non critical data 460 and a plurality of customer data available in a database 490, maintained by VISA 485, and retrieve the tupple data of Casper 405. Using the information from the tupple data of Casper 405, VISA 485 may regenerate the electronic batch. For regenerating the electronic coupon, VISA 485 may use the tupple data or the Casper 405 non critical data 460 or the time stamp 465 or combinations thereof.
Accordingly to one embodiment of the present technique, VISA 485 may later verify whether the regenerated electronic coupon is same as the received electronic coupon. If the value matches VISA 485 may generate the transaction status with an execution result as valid and send response (transaction status) as "YES" to Amazon 421, as shown in step 495A and similarly to the Casper 405, as shown in step 495B. The transaction status updated to Amazon 421 may be encrypted using unique key specific to Amazon 421 and VISA 485. Similarly, transaction status updated to Casper 405 may be encrypted using CVV number of Casper 405 as stored in the database 490 of VISA 485. According to one embodiment of the present technique, if the value does not match then, VISA 485 may generate a "NO" response (transaction status) and send the generated transaction status to Casper 405 or the Amazon 421. If the response is "YES", Amazon 421 may deliver the goods or services to Casper 405, as shown in step 495C.
The present technique may not require a SSL for secure transmission of the data, thus making the technique very handy to pitch into devices like PDAs or mobile phones. Also, using the nounce value eliminates a probability of "Double Billing" from the merchant for a single transaction, thus the customer is secured of avoiding the probability of being billed twice for a single transaction. Since, at the end of the

transaction the FI may send the transaction status (whether it is committed or aborted) in an encrypted form to the customer and merchant. The advantage is that the customer will have idea about the transaction status and hence double billing cannot happen. The privacy of the customer may be preserved, when the customer register with the merchant portal by virtue of a pseudo-name.
Exemplary Computing Environment
One or more of the above-described techniques can be implemented in or involve one or more computer systems. Figure 5 illustrates a generalized example of a computing environment 500, The computing environment 500 is not intended to suggest any limitation as to scope of use or functionality of described embodiments.
With reference to Figure 5, the computing environment 500 includes at least one processing unit 510 and memory 520. In Figure 5, this most basic configuration 530 is included within a dashed line. The processing unit 510 executes computer-executable instructions and may be a real or a virtual processor. In a multi¬processing system, multiple processing units execute computer-executable instructions to increase processing power. The memory 520 may be volatile memory (e.g,, registers, cache, RAM), non-volatile memory (e.g., ROM, EEPROM, flash memory, etc.), or some combination of the two. In some embodiments, the memory 520 stores software 580 implementing described techniques.
A computing environment may have additional features. For example, the computing environment 500 includes storage 540, one or more input devices 550, one or more output devices 560, and one or more communication connections 570, An interconnection mechanism (not shown) such as a bus, controller, or network interconnects the components of the computing environment 500. Typically, operating system software (not shown) provides an operating environment for other software executing in the computing environment 500, and coordinates activities of the components of the computing environment 500.
The storage 540 may be removable or non-removable, and includes magnetic disks, magnetic tapes or cassettes, CD-ROMs, CD-RWs, DVDs, or any

other medium which can be used to store information and which can be accessed within the computing environment 500. In some embodiments, the storage 540 stores instructions for the software 580.
The input device(s) 550 may be a touch input device such as a keyboard, mouse, pen, trackball, touch screen, or game controller, a voice input device, a scanning device, a digital camera, or another device that provides input to the computing environment 500. The output device(s) 560 may be a display, printer, speaker, or another device that provides output from the computing environment 500.
The communication connection(s) 570 enable communication over a communication medium to another computing entity. The communication medium conveys information such as computer-executable instructions, audio or video information, or other data in a modulated data signal. A modulated data signal is a signal that has one or more of its characteristics set or changed in such a manner as to encode information in the signal. By way of example, and not limitation, communication media include wired or wireless techniques implemented with an electrical, optical, RF, infrared, acoustic, or other carrier.
Implementations can be described in the general context of computer-readable media. Computer-readable media are any available media that can be accessed within a computing environment. By way of example, and not limitation, within the computing environment 500, computer-readable media include memory 520, storage 540, communication media, and combinations of any of the above.
Having described and illustrated the principles of our invention with reference to described embodiments, it will be recognized that the described embodiments can be modified in arrangement and detail without departing from such principles. It should be understood that the programs, processes, or methods described herein are not related or limited to any particular type of computing environment, unless indicated otherwise. Various types of general purpose or specialized computing environments may be used with or perform operations in

accordance with the teachings described herein. Elements of the described embodiments shown in software may be implemented in hardware and vice versa.
In view of the many possible embodiments to which the principles of our invention may be applied, we claim as our invention all such embodiments as may come within the scope and spirit of the following claims and equivalents thereto.

We Claim:
1. A method of securing an electronic transaction in an untrusted network, the method comprising:
generating an electronic coupon by utilizing at least one of a data or a time stamp or a card verification value (CVV) or a nounce value or combinations thereof, wherein the nounce value is obtained on each successful electronic transaction;
encrypting at least one of the electronic coupon or the data or time stamp or a transaction identity or combinations thereof in an electronic batch and processing the encrypted electronic batch over the untrusted network;
decrypting the received electronic batch and regenerating an electronic coupon using a tupple data maintained in a database appropriate for the respective data; and
verifying the received electronic coupon by comparing with the regenerated electronic coupon to execute the transaction.
2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein generating the electronic coupon includes performing at least one of a hash operation or an encrypt operation or both.
3. The method of claim 2, wherein performing the hash operation includes using at least one of a binary numeral function or a comma separated value function or a tab separated value function or a Unicode character separated value function or combinations thereof
4. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the data includes at least one of a critical data or non critical data or both.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the critical data is a customer critical data comprising at least one of a credit card credentials or a debit card credentials or a derivative card credentials or a name or a password or combinations thereof
6. The method of claim 4, wherein the customer non critical data includes at least one of a customer date of birth or a customer address or a customer mobile number or a customer age or a customer place of work or a customer attribute available in public domain or a customer electronic mail identity or combinations thereof
7. The method of claim 4, wherein the merchant non critical data is a shopping data comprising at least one of a list of goods or services to be purchased or cost of each goods or services to be purchased or quantity of goods or services to be purchased or combinations thereof
8, The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the time stamp includes at least one of a transaction time or transaction date or both.
9, The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the nounce value is a dynamically generated transaction number issued to the respective customer on each successful transaction.

10. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising sequentially using the data or the time stamp or the CVV or the nounce value or combinations thereof to generate or regenerate the electronic coupon.
11. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising using a unique key specific to the respective merchant and the respective financial institution for encrypting or decrypting the electronic batch.
12- The method as recited in claim 1, wherein regenerating the electronic coupon using the tupple data maintained in the database is through the respective customer data.
13, The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the tupple data includes at least one of the customer critical data or the CVV or the nounce value or combinations thereof maintained in the database.
14. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein regenerating the electronic coupon further includes using at least one of the received data or the received time stamp or the tupple data or combinations thereof
15. A method of performing a plurality of secure electronic transaction over an untrusted network, the method comprising:
a plurality of customer receiving a nounce value from a financial institution on each of their previous successful transaction;

generating an electronic coupon by each respective customer, utilizing at least one of a critical data or a non critical data or a time stamp or a card verification value (CVV) or a nounce value or combinations thereof provided by the respective customer;
encrypting at least one of the electronic coupon or the non critical data or time stamp or a transaction identity or combinations thereof in an electronic batch by a respective merchant and processing the encrypted electronic batch over the untrusted network to the financial institution;
decrypting the received electronic batch by the financial institution and utilizing non critical data of respective customer for regenerating an electronic coupon using a tupple data maintained in a database of the financial institution;
verifying the received electronic coupon by comparing with the regenerated electronic coupon to execute the transaction; and
updating a transaction status to at least one of the customer or the merchant or combinations thereof
16. The method as recited in claim 15, wherein the electronic transaction includes at least one of the customer or the merchant or the financial institution or combinations thereof
17, The method as recited in claim 15, wherein the electronic transaction is performed using customers' at least one of a credit card or a debit card or a derivative card or combinations thereof

18. The method as recited in claim 15, wherein the transaction status includes at least one of a transaction identity (id) or an execution result or a nounce value or combinations thereof.
19. The method as recited in claim 15, wherein the transaction status updated to the merchant is encrypted using a unique key specific to the respective merchant and the respective financial institution.
20. The method as recited in claim 15, wherein the transaction status updated to the customer is encrypted using the card verification value (CVV) of the respective customers.
21. The method as recited in claim 15, wherein the nounce value is additionally communicated to the respective customer from the financial institution on
request.
22. A method of preserving anonymity of the plurality of customer in an electronic transaction, the method comprising:
a plurality of customers registering with one or more merchant and initiating the electronic transaction by logging to the respective merchant with their respective pseudo-name;
performing the electronic transaction by generating an electronic coupon, utilizing at least one of a data or a time stamp or a card verification value (CVV) or a nounce value or combinations thereof, wherein the electronic coupon generated is hashed; and

providing the respective merchant at least one of the hashed electronic coupon or the non critical data or time stamp or combinations thereof for executing the transaction with a financial institution.
23. The method as recited in claim 22, wherein the plurality of customers
registering with the respective merchant is a one time process, wherein the
registration includes entering at least one of the customer pseudo-name or an
electronic-mail id or both.
24, A computer program product comprising a computer usable medium
having a computer readable program code embodied therein for securing an electronic
transaction in an untrusted network, the method comprising:
program code adapted for generating an electronic coupon by utilizing at least one of a data or a time stamp or a card verification value (CVV) or a nounce value or combinations thereof, wherein the nounce value is obtained on each successful electronic transaction;
program code adapted for encrypting at least one of the electronic coupon or the data or time stamp or a transaction identity or combinations thereof in an electronic batch and processing the encrypted electronic batch over the untrusted network;
program code adapted for decrypting the received electronic batch and regenerating an electronic coupon using a tupple data maintained in a database appropriate for the respective data; and
program code adapted for verifying the received electronic coupon by comparing with the regenerated electronic coupon to execute the transaction.