Importance

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Abstract

A smart card, (a type of credit card containing storage capacity and processing ability preferably in the form of a microprocessor), is used to store an electronic ticket provided from the service provider's computer system to the customer's computer over an insecure communications line. Upon the request for a ticket from the customer's computer, the service provider's system transmits a ticket loading request token T.sub.LR to the customer's computer to be loaded into a smart card of the customer. The smart card responds to the ticket loading request token T.sub.LR by producing a ticket loading token T.sub.L containing a hash of the ticket loading request token T.sub.LR ; the smart card's identifier T.sub.ID ; a secret number G.sub.C and ticket loading token T.sub.L' from the previous transaction of the smart card. The hash signal is attached to the ticket loading token T.sub.L ' from the previous transaction and shipped back to the ticket provider. The ticket provider's system then creates the electronic ticket containing the ticket information and a new hash or signature T.sub.S number, formed by hashing the ticket information with the hash number received from the customer, and returns it to the customer's computer. The smart card checks the signature T.sub.S of the ticket and if it matches its own calculation of T.sub.S, accepts and stores the ticket. Once the ticket is entered, the smart card changes T.sub.L ' to T.sub.L in preparation for the next transaction.

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First Claim