Authentication in Cybersecurity

Authentication is the process of validating the identity of a user by usually obtaining some sort of credentials and making sure that they match the user's provided login information, in order to produce some type of output which shows some sort of validation that the user is who they say they are. Quite simply, authentication is about making sure that a message, transmission, or action is actually coming from the person or entity that it is claimed to be coming from. When it comes to an environment such as the internet, implementing it where we have various users and all of them will have different types of resources that they want to access, it becomes of the utmost importance since it ensures that only authorized persons can access the resources. With the boom in technology and the massive development of the internet, we have seen more and more resources moving from a localized type of use to more of a web-based type of use, and this leads to an increased need for stronger and more multileveled methods of authentication in order to protect those resources. Another reason why authentication is important in today's world is the sheer number of attacks and attempted security breaches that exist. Nowadays, the two most widely used authentication techniques are username and password, and challenge and response. These techniques are used to validate one's identity and grant access to the correct resources if the credentials given are valid. However, it is recognized that in order for one to implement stronger methods of authentication, a third party will be required in order to verify the user's identity or personal information. Multifactor authentication (also known as two-factor or dual-factor authentication) can be defined as a method of confirmation of a user's claimed identity in which a computer user is granted access only after successfully presenting two or more pieces of evidence to an authentication mechanism: knowledge, possession, and inherence. Two-step verification is a technique designed to achieve a goal similar to multifactor authentication by means of a method of confirmation that involves two different methods of verifying the user's claimed identity. Any combination of methods can be used as related to two-step verification, including the more traditional username and password, a text message sent via mobile phone, a secondary password provided by a security token or smartcard, or any other first or second-level methods that can be considered.