Password-less authentication system and method

1. A server-implemented method for authenticating a login without a password, the method comprising:

receiving, at the server and from a request initiator, a request to authenticate a login, the request including a user identifier;

providing, from the server and to a device pre-registered for use in association with the user identifier, an acknowledgement request, the device being configured to generate a prompt in response to receiving the acknowledgment request, the prompt requesting input to authenticate the login;

initiating a timer at the server, the timer tracking the amount of time that the device has had access to the acknowledgment request;

determining, by the server, that a login confirmation message has been received from the pre-registered device before expiration of the timer; and

in response to determining that the login confirmation message has been received from the pre-registered device before expiration of the timer, providing, by the server, an authentication acknowledgment message to the request initiator such that the login is authenticated without the use of a password.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein a password is not received from the request initiator.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein providing the acknowledgment request comprises:

identifying a device associated with a user profile corresponding to the user identifier received from the request initiator; and

providing the acknowledgment request to the identified device.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein providing the acknowledgment to the identified device comprises:

pushing the acknowledgment request to the identified device.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein providing the acknowledgment request comprises:

receiving a request from the device to provide any pending acknowledgment requests for which the device is authorized to receive but has not yet received; and

in response to receiving the request from the device, providing the acknowledgement request to the device.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the request to authenticate a login further includes a requestor identifier identifying the request initiator, the method further comprising, prior to providing the acknowledgment request:

authenticating the requestor identifier by determining that the requestor identifier has been pre-registered for use with the login authority server.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the request to authenticate a login further includes a requestor identifier identifying the request initiator, the method further comprising:

based on the requestor identifier, providing information identifying the request initiator to the pre-registered device,

and wherein the prompt identifies the request initiator.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the request initiator is a third party website.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising, prior to providing the acknowledgment request:

authenticating the user identifier by determining that the user identifier has been pre-registered for use with the login authority server.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

authenticating the login confirmation message to determine that the login confirmation message was received from the pre-registered device.

11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving a browser instance identifier from the request initiator;

receiving a user-input browser instance identifier from the pre-registered device; and

comparing the browser instance identifier received from the request initiator to the user-input browser instance identifier,

and wherein the authentication acknowledgment message is provided based on the comparison.

12. A login authority server comprising:

one or more communication subsystems for communicating with other devices;

a processor coupled to the communication subsystem;

at least one memory coupled to the processor, the memory storing user profiles for a plurality of users, at least one user profile associating a user identifier with an electronic device pre-registered for use with the user associated with the user identifier, the memory storing processor-executable instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:

a) receive, from a request initiator, a request to authenticate a login, the request including one of the user identifiers; b) provide, to the electronic device pre-registered for use in association with the user identifier, an acknowledgement request; c) initiate a timer, the timer tracking the amount of time that the device has had access to the acknowledgment request; d) determine that a login confirmation message has been received from the pre-registered electronic device before expiration of the timer; and e) in response to determining that the login confirmation message has been received from the pre-registered electronic device before expiration of the timer, provide an authentication acknowledgment message to the request initiator such that the login is authenticated without the use of a password.

13. The login authority server of claim 12 , wherein a password is not received at the login authority server from the request initiator.

14. The login authority server of claim 13 , wherein providing the acknowledgment request comprises:

identifying a device associated with a user profile corresponding to the user identifier received from the request initiator; and

providing the acknowledgment request to the identified device.

15. A method for facilitating a login without a password, the method being performed by a processor of a device pre-registered with a login authority server, the login authority server configured for receiving, from a request initiator, a request to authenticate the login, the method comprising:

receiving an authentication request from the login authority server;

in response to receiving the authentication request, generating a prompt requesting user input confirming a desire to proceed with a login;

after generating the prompt, receiving input from an input mechanism associated with the device; and

responding to the authentication request by sending a response to the login authority server based on the received input, such that the login is authenticated without the use of a password.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the received input indicates a desire to proceed with the login and wherein the response authorizes the login authority server to inform the request initiator that the login has been authorized.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the prompt does not require input of a password and no password is input to the device between the generation of the prompt and the sending of the response.

18. The method of claim 15 , wherein the authentication request includes information identifying the request initiator and wherein the prompt is generated based on the information identifying the request initiator.

19. The method of claim 15 , wherein the received input indicates a desire to not proceed with the login and wherein the response informs the login authority server that the login is not authorized.

20. The method of claim 15 , further comprising:

initiating a timer to track the elapsed time following the generation of the prompt.