Identification and authentication Systems

Identification is the process by which the identity of a user is established, and authentication is the process by which a service confirms the claim of a user to use a specific identity by the use of credentials (usually a password or a certificate).

Identification

Identification is the process that enables recognition of a user described to an automated data processing system. This is generally by the use of unique machine readable names. In human terms, client and merchant engage in mutual identification when they, for example, tell each other their names over the phone. With identification, one’s identity is asserted and accepted without further proof. Apart from anonymity, where one’s identity is not known at all, identification is the lowest form of recognition. Identification is a weak and generally unreliable way of relating an asserted name to an individual. This is because anyone knowing someone else’s identity can assert his or her as that individual. But that is what identification is. This is why there is a way to prove one’s identity with authentication.

Authentication

Authentication is "A positive identification, with a degree of certainty sufficient for permitting certain rights or privileges to the person or thing positively identified." In simpler terms, it is "The act of verifying the claimed identity of an individual, station or originator". In a human contact by phone, the client and merchant might recognize (authenticate) each other by their familiar voices. In the context of information systems, authentication is most often accepted with a user id or user name and a password or pass phrase. It is assumed that, while many individuals may know a person’s user id or user name, only the person associated with the user id or user name will know the password. When the person furnishes his or her user id and password, the system to which they are identifying themselves knows that this person is in fact who they claim to be.