Securing online transaction is Mr. Chandra Balaraman's obsession. The president and chief executive officer (CEO) of myespace.net, Mr. Balaraman has now introduced a new product OyeNok, a unique web authentication service ensuring secure net transaction.

It may be recalled that Mr. Balaraman, founder of Indigo Technologies, launched SecuraTrade, an e-comm product for the second largest Taiwanese stockbroker – a product, which has also found favour with the National Stock Exchange (NSE), as its online trading solution.

Indigo Technologies, which was also chosen as the technology partner of Nasdaq, was subsequently taken over by SSI Ltd..

"Authentication is the root of all the issues on net-based business transactions and credit card frauds are common in online transactions. Our product solves the problem," says Mr. Balaraman. But what's so special about OyeNok for which a technical process patent is pending with the United States Patent and Trademark Office?

Developed at an outlay of Rs. 2 crore, OyeNok, like in any other security program, operates on a secret code number called mobile digital authentication code. However, the uniqueness of the product is that once a person initiates an Internet transaction, myespace.net's registry will call his/her mobile phone and prompt him/her to punch the mobile phone, transaction and the mobile digital authentication code numbers on the phone. When the codes are tallied, a transaction is executed.

This process is safe for the user as well as merchants. The users are safe as their credit cards cannot be misused by strangers as the authentication requires punching of other code numbers on an instrument that is generally always with the user.

The safety net for the merchants is that the system creates a proof of initiation and completion of transaction in the form of billing of the call made by myespace.net's to the transaction initiator's cell phone.

"While the public key and private key concepts solves on the aspect of security, the other aspect that results is dispute is authenticity of the transaction and the initiator," Mr. Balaraman adds.

Myespace.net is targeting global credit card majors like Visa Card and Master Card as its business partners. The company's strategy is simple and effective. Tying up with credit card companies will give `OyeNok' an entry into banks – the payment gateways – participating in trade establishments and captive card users.

Remarks Mr. S. Padmanabhan, executive vice president, "These two card companies control around 70 per cent of the global credit card market. A tie-up with them will be beneficial in two ways. One it assures good business volumes and secondly it offers higher valuations."

A pilot project will be rolled out in Singapore soon as the mobile phone population is high there. The Chennai-based company is also negotiating with Singapore Telecom and France Telecom for the purpose. After the trial run in Singapore, the company will conduct a trial run in Chennai. It is talking with banks like ICICI and HDFC and is also in touch with cellular companies like Skycell and RPG for the purpose.

"Rolling out the service in a city will cost anything between $2 to $2.5 million," Mr. Padmanabhan adds. According to him, the company has approached Intel, IFC, Washington and other venture capitalists for funds.

For the company, the revenues will be in the form of one-time registration fee and the fee from each transaction. As the `OyeNok' system registry will be generating calls to thousands of cellular phones, Mr. Padmanabhan also does not rule out asking telecom companies for a share in the revenues on such calls.

The potential areas where `OyeNok' can find application are: accessing medical records, R & D information sharing and legal documents' access.