#     _         _   _                _   _           _   _
#    / \  _   _| |_| |__   ___ _ __ | |_(_) ___ __ _| |_(_) ___  _ __
#   / _ \| | | | __| '_ \ / _ \ '_ \| __| |/ __/ _` | __| |/ _ \| '_ \
#  / ___ \ |_| | |_| | | |  __/ | | | |_| | (_| (_| | |_| | (_) | | | |
# /_/   \_\__,_|\__|_| |_|\___|_| |_|\__|_|\___\__,_|\__|_|\___/|_| |_|

Authentication

Authentication, from the Greek Authentikos (meaning real or genuine), is the process of proving something is genuine or “real”. For example, if you want to autenticate the legitimacy of an antique, you would take it to an expert to have it authenticated. In computation, authentication is most often correlated with user accounts.

Varieties of Authentication

There are several different means by which authentication take place, and obviously these methods can be combined infinitely.

• Password
• Key
• Time
• Data object or File
• Biometric, such as fingerprint
• Channel of Communication
• Multifactor
• Hardware device
• Secondary authentication, or agent based
• Negation, or failure to perform or provide any of the above.

Pages on Authentication