Tokenized data security
View Patent ↗Provided are devices, methods, systems, computer readable storage media and other means for tokenizing data. In some examples, credit card numbers are tokenized using a pre-generated token map and absent the use of a networked database that stores a relatively large quantity of credit card numbers in a central location. The token map may be generated by a token map generator such that the token map can be used by a tokenizer to replace a portion of an account number with a token, and by a detokenizer to replace the token with the original portion of the account number. A pre-parser and parser may also be used to locate an account number and/or token in a message received over a network.
1. A method of tokenizing an account number comprising:
receiving at least a portion of the account number, wherein the at least a portion of the account number comprises a version identifier;
accessing, by a processor, a token map associated with the version identifier;
retrieving, from the token map, a randomly assigned token value that was pre-associated with the at least a portion of the account number;
converting the token value to a different numeric system;
generating a token by combining the version identifier with the token value; and
transmitting at least the token.
2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
determining a length of the account number; and
selecting the token map based on the length of the account number.
3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the token value's length is dependent on the length of the account number.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the receiving at least the portion of the account number comprises receiving the entire account number and the method further comprising:
extracting a middle digits value from the account number, wherein retrieving the token value comprises using the middle digits value as a linking mechanism.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
receiving at least the portion of the account number comprises receiving a binary representation of a base10 number; and
converting the token value to the different numeric system comprises converting the token to a base36 numeric system.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
receiving at least the portion of the account number is from a source device; and
transmitting at least the token is to the source device.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
receiving at least the portion of the account number is from a source device; and
transmitting at least the token to a device that is different than the source device.
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein accessing the token map comprises decrypting the token map.
9. The method of claim 1 further comprising storing the entire token map on a server's random access memory.
10. The method of claim 1 , wherein generating the token comprises generating the token to have a length that is the same as the entire account number.
11. A system comprising:
a storage device configured to store a token map associated with a version identifier, wherein the token map comprises at least one token value pre-associated with a partial account number, wherein the partial account number comprises the version identifier; and
a processor configured to generate a token for an account number associated with the partial account number by retrieving the token value from the token map.
12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the storage device is random access memory of a server.
13. The system of claim 11 , wherein the processor is further configured to generate the token map by randomly associating token values with array location values.
14. The system of claim 11 , wherein the processor is further configured to parse the account number and extract the partial account number, wherein the partial account number is a string of middle digits.
15. The system of claim 11 , wherein the processor is further configured to receive a tokenized account number and extract a second token using the token map.
16. A method of detokenizing a token comprising:
receiving at least a portion of a tokenized account number;
parsing, by a processor, a token from the tokenized account number;
parsing a version identifier from the token;
accessing a token map associated with the version identifier;
retrieving, from the token map, a portion of a detokenized account number associated with the token; and
transmitting at least the portion of the detokenized account number.
17. The method of claim 16 further comprising converting the token from a base36 numerical scheme to a base10 numerical scheme before retrieving the portion of the detokenized account number.
18. The method of claim 16 further comprising constructing the detokenized account number by inserting the portion of the detokenized account number between two sets of digits included in the tokenized account number.
19. A method of transmitting an account number, comprising transmitting, by a communication interface configured for at least one of wired or wireless communication, a string of characters comprising between ten and nineteen numeric digits that represent the account number, wherein at least six of the numeric digits are tokenized characters and at least four of the numeric digits are untokenized characters.
20. The method of claim 19 , wherein the tokenized characters are represented alphanumerically and the untokenized characters are represented numerically with a base10 numerical scheme.