iovation, the leading provider of device-based solutions for authentication and fraud prevention, today announced it has secured a patent entitled “Systems and Methods for Group Authentication.” The group authentication patent enables multiple parties in different locations to approve a transaction with their mobile devices.

“The two-man rule is a well-known control mechanism for securing vital actions; it’s why many governments require the presence of two simultaneously-authenticated personnel in order to obtain access to certain sensitive information or perform a critical action as highly charged as launching a nuclear intercontinental ballistic missile,” said Geoffrey Sanders, Product Director of LaunchKey at iovation. “In fact, it was the classic depiction of two missile launch officers authenticating with two separate physical launch keys that inspired the name LaunchKey. In today’s on-the-go distributed society, having two people physically present to perform an action is not always possible. This patent covers the systems and methods for authenticating and obtaining the real-time authorization of a remote group or subset of that group.”

Traditional authentication with numerous parties has required sending papers to be signed or, worse yet, allowing passwords to be shared. iovation’s patent enables multiple people to authorize a transaction from their mobile devices. This can be accomplished through multiple device authentication methods like biometric fingerprint scan, verification of a PIN or pattern code, or geofencing.

In its patent application, iovation outlined a number of scenarios covered by group authentication:

A business user needs to ship an item but requires manager approval before doing so

Business partners wish to sign off on large financial transactions together while working remotely from one another

Updating software may require approval from a group of developers and a single project

A child needs permission from two parents to watch a movie, but neither one of them is present

The group authentication patent builds upon the company’s recently launched iovation LaunchKey MFA (multifactor authentication) solution. It is the first service allowing businesses to enable customers to select the authentication and authorization methods they prefer, while retaining the ability to dynamically change the amount of customer authentication required at any given time.

A video about iovation’s new patent is at https://vimeo.com/iovation/group-authentication-patent.



iovation's solutions portfolio tackles the heightened threat environment from multiple directions, including through device-based risk detection and consumer authentication services. Highly intelligent business rules, combined with proprietary machine learning algorithms, flag anomalies around hundreds of attributes and obscure risk factors, offering the highest degree of confidence when it comes to stopping fraud and improving customer experience in the finance, insurance, ecommerce, social media, travel, ticketing, telecommunications, gaming, and gambling industries.

