Contact us anytime to know more — Abhishek P., Founder & CFO CISIN
What Is Authentication?
Before authorizing access to any resource or system, authentication ensures the identity of both the device and the user.
In other words, authentication is a method used to confirm that a person is who they claim they are and that only users with valid credentials can gain entry to secure systems. In order to confirm their identity when trying to gain entry to network information, users must enter secret credentials when trying to gain entry.
Authentication allows access with confidence at an appropriate time without risk. It doesn't happen by itself - rather, this process needs to take place between different processes and systems within an organization or group of organizations.
The authentication process is one of three steps necessary for accessing digital resources.Do You Have Authorization? Identification requires a user ID such as a username; without authentication, it would be impossible to know whether that user is who their username belongs to.
Authentication provides this link between a valid username and valid credentials like passwords or other forms of verification. Most organizations recommend and implement additional authentication factors for added protection.
History of Authentication
Digital authentication dates back to the 1960s when large research institutes or universities began adopting modern computers.
At that time, computers were large - taking up entire rooms - scarce and expensive resources that universities typically only had one computer for students and researchers to share. This resulted in accessing files belonging to other users without restrictions or limitations.
Fernando Corbato was an MIT student when he recognized this weakness. To address it, he created a simple password program that asked users for their password before saving it in a plaintext text file on the filesystem - thus providing digital authentication.
Digital Authentication Timeline
1960s: Passwords and Encryption In 1961, Corbato developed a password program for use on MIT's computer system. By the late 60s, programmers had begun work on more secure password systems that didn't store plaintext data; Robert Morris, who worked at Bell Labs using Unix, created an encrypted password scheme using key derivation, allowing easy computation in one direction but not in both directions.
1970s: Asymmetric Cryptography
Asymmetric cryptography (also referred to as public-key encryption) employs two mathematically related keys for encryption or decryption purposes.
UK government employees James Ellis, Clifford Cocks and Malcolm J Williamson developed such cryptography in the 1970s. Still, they did not release their knowledge publicly until 1997.
As technology evolved, traditional passwords became inadequate to secure our computers. People would frequently reuse passwords, which made them vulnerable.
Computer scientists, therefore, developed dynamic passwords, which change based on variables like location, time or physical updates - two dynamic password protocols have since been introduced.
Dynamic passwords may be utilized as part of two-factor verification, often combined with traditional passwords for extra protection.
Computer Scientists devised Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) after asymmetric cryptography became publicly accessible, which allows people to create digital certificates store and send them securely online, thus providing enhanced protection to online users.
2000s: Single Sign-on and Multifactor Authentication
The early 2000s witnessed the advent of more robust authentication technologies with multiple layers of protection.
Before they could gain access, users were required to verify their identities through two means of authentication. Single sign-on (SSO), however, streamlined this process by only requiring credentials once at one access point and being verified by a third party.
The Year of Biometrics Biometric authentication used to be reserved solely for government and spy films, but thanks to advancements in recent technology, it's now an everyday form of authentication, such as fingerprint TouchID or FaceID on smart devices.
The Importance Of Authentication
Cyberattacks present an ever-increasing threat to businesses today. Over recent years, this threat landscape has dramatically expanded, with more people working remotely and cloud computing becoming mainstream across various industries.
According to research conducted by Identity Defined Security Alliance, 94% of enterprise organizations experienced data breach incidents within two years.
Cybersecurity analyst Insiders' research determined that 90% of respondents to its survey experienced phishing attacks in 2023.
Furthermore, 29% experienced credentials stuffing and brute-force attacks, resulting in significant helpdesk costs for password resets. Organizations need to protect themselves more than ever against cybercrime as its cost will skyrocket over the next five years and reach USD 10.5 trillion by 2025.
Authentication has become an essential strategy to mitigate risk and protect sensitive information, helping organizations and users protect their systems and data against criminal actors who seek to steal or exploit private data from sources including computers and networks, devices and websites, databases and other applications.
Investing in authentication as part of an identity and access management infrastructure (IAM) strategy offers many advantages.
Limit data breaches, reduce costs and manage organizational compliance effectively.
Multi-Factor Authentication Is On The Rise
Multi-factor authentication is one of the key pillars of data protection. According to the 2023 Report, credentials were the most often compromised data during breaches, particularly during attempts at phishing, where attackers try to obtain victim passwords to gain entry to targeted organizations.
Multi-factor authentication provides an additional layer of protection to help protect against this type of attack, meaning even if hackers gain access to your credentials, multi-factor authentication won't allow them to enter your system and gain entry.
Microsoft and Google recently extolled the virtues of multi-factor authentication as an important way of upholding security hygiene practices.
Google revealed in their research that adding a phone number for recovery to their Google Account could prevent as many as 100% of automated bots and 99% of bulk-phishing attacks while also deflecting 66% of targeted attacks observed during our investigation.
Microsoft found that MFA successfully blocked 99.9% of unauthorized login attempts, even from hackers who obtained copies of users' passwords.
According to the Group Program Manager of Security at Microsoft, passwords alone no longer suffice in protecting an account.
Multi-factor authentication is a cornerstone of an effective risk mitigation strategy that reduces risks related to brute force attacks and unauthorized access, giving both organizations and users peace of mind when protecting their accounts and crucial data.
Authentication Use Cases
Authentication has become an everyday practice not just among IT professionals but also scientists and non-technical individuals.
People of all kinds use authentication both at home and at work in order to gain access to personal data or devices.
As technology evolves and hackers become more adept, new methods for authenticating are emerging to protect personal, government, and business resources from unauthorized entry.
Below, we'll go more in-depth into these methods of authentication.
How Does Authentication Work?
Basic authentication refers to the process of verifying that an individual truly is who they claim they are using methods such as username/password authentication or biometric scans such as fingerprint or facial recognition scans.
How does authentication work on the backend of a website?Identity verification using login and password (the most widely-used form of authentication) is relatively straightforward: Users need a username and password in order to log into their account on the server, and these credentials will then be compared with those stored in its database.
If they match, access is granted to that individual.
Keep in mind that many applications use cookies to authenticate users after their initial login, so they won't need to sign in every time.
A session refers to the period during which an account can be accessed without needing a new authentication process; when users log into an app for the first time, their session is maintained through two actions taken by it: 1) authentication using cookies and 2) maintaining cookies. Create a token to associate your account with a unique string of characters.
Assign The Token To A Cookie Stored In The Browser
When the user visits a secure webpage, the app compares this token with one stored in its database. If they match, access is maintained without further credentials being needed from the user.
Apps will eventually destroy tokens on servers, leading to session expiry and providing users with an easier experience and saving them time.
Unfortunately, this type of authentication also leaves devices or browsers used by users open to hackers gaining access.
Authentication Factors
Credentials are used to authenticate or verify an individual, including passwords, security tokens such as smart cards or keys, and biometric verification techniques such as fingerprint recognition.
Three main criteria are used to authenticate users: Knowledge factors (also referred to as knowledge authentication factors) are an invaluable way of verifying identity by validating users' sensitive data, like logins and passwords.
Your User Authenticates With An Access Card Or Key Fob
Your identity can be verified using inherence factors by verifying the biometric features of a user, such as their voice, fingerprint or iris pattern.
Biometric authentication provides advantages that make it harder to duplicate or lose. Still, it may also be more expensive and less reliable than traditional authentication factors.
Do You Have Any Other Authentication Factors?
Others note that measures such as location (where are you) and time can also be used to authenticate an individual.
However, these would more accurately fall under security controls or additional authentication.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology, a federal agency that publishes cybersecurity guidelines, offers some insight: No one's identity can be accurately determined solely based on location or time alone; two people occupying identical locations could still differ significantly; location alone does not suffice as an identifier, and time alone does not suffice as well.
These can provide an additional layer of security. You could schedule access during specific times during the day or week; users will be denied entry if they attempt to log in outside these windows.
Furthermore, location can help identify suspicious activity, like GPS or IP addresses.
Read More: Why Cybersecurity is Important for eCommerce Business
Types of Authentication
Single-Factor Authentication
SFA or one-factor verification entails using one credential (e.g., username and password) to gain entry to the system.
Although one-factor verification is widely used and often considered the go-to authentication solution, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency recently added it to its list of Bad Practices as considered insecure.
Single-factor authentication can be vulnerable as it only offers one layer of defense, leaving hackers no protection if credentials are stolen and used illegally to gain entry.
Hackers could also guess or crack passwords easily if weak or default ones are chosen, shared administrative passwords are reused or weak passwords are reused.
Two-Factor Authentication
Two-factor authentication (2FA), also known as two-factor verification, adds another layer of protection for access points.
2FA systems use both factors in authentication. Know and have something (username/password pair). Having something in your possession, such as a smart card or security token.TouchID or biometric credentials).
Remember that even though username and password combine as two pieces of information, they only count as knowledge factors and, therefore, count as a single factor for two-factor verification purposes.
In order to qualify as two-factor verification, another authentication method from either of the other categories must also be employed as the second authentication factor.
2FA provides extra security because even if an attacker manages to compromise a user's password, they must enter another authentication method for access - making such incidents far less likely.
Three-Factor Authentication
Three-factor verification (3FA) is an authentication process that involves three different factors to authenticate you - one from what you know, another from what you own, and a third that reflects who you are).
Three-factor authentication provides more protection to your account than 2FA does.
Multi-Factor Authentication
Multi-factor authentication (MFA), also referred to as two or three-factor authentication, refers to any authentication process that involves more than one factor for verification purposes.
Multi-factor authentication includes both two and three-factor processes as forms of multi-factor authentication.
Single Sign-On Authentication
SSO authentication gives users access to multiple accounts and applications with just one set of credentials, most often Facebook and Google accounts.
Users are then able to sign up for other apps using their Google or Facebook credentials as they sign in using one account for the other - with trusted third parties (like Google) already verifying user identity for these services.
SSO helps strengthen security by streamlining the management of user login credentials, making login faster and simpler for both helpdesk staff and end-users alike.
Administrators can still easily control central requirements like MFA or password complexes while making retirement of credentials simpler when leaving an organization.
One-Time Password
One-time passwords (OTPs), also referred to as dynamic passwords, are passwords generated automatically and valid for only a single login session or transaction.
OTPs are widely used for multifactor authentication (MFA); for instance, when someone logs in using their username and password, the application sends out an OTP via their registered email or phone. The user can enter this code to complete the authentication process and gain entry into their account.
Passwordless authentication
Passwordless Authentication is a form of authentication that does not rely on passwords to authenticate users. A user enters their ID and is then asked to authenticate with one or more registered devices (token or device).
In conjunction with SSO and MFA technologies, passwordless authentication can enhance both the user experience and security.
Certificate-Based Authentication
Certificate-based authentication uses digital certificates (also called public-key certificates) to authenticate and identify devices or users.
A digital certificate (also referred to as a "public-key certificate") is an electronic document that stores public key data about keys owned by people, owners of those keys and digital signatures verifying identity. Certificate-based authentication (CBA) can be implemented using either multifactor or two-factor authentication processes.
Biometrics
Biometric authentication relies on biometrics such as fingerprints, facial scans and retinal scans to authenticate users.
To do so, the system first needs to capture and store biometric data before matching up a user's login with the database; if these match, they are considered verified users.
Authentication vs. Authorization
What's The Difference?
Simply stated, authentication refers to verifying an individual's ID. In contrast, authorization refers to their access rights and privileges for files, applications or data.
Once authenticated, they can then gain access to various levels of data according to predetermined rules, thus permitting specific functions or accessing different levels.
Sales employees may access certain applications and databases that help them do their jobs more effectively and collaborate more efficiently but will be restricted from accessing servers used by IT to manage the information infrastructure of the company.
This security strategy, known as least-privilege access (or principle for least privilege, POLP), ensures users only gain access to systems and information necessary for their job performance, protecting an organization's confidential data by restricting who can gain entry.
Authentication and authorization can be implemented as part of a strategy framework to control access across systems intelligently.
Emerging Authentication Trends
Methods of authentication are constantly evolving. With sophisticated security threats emerging and biometric authentication becoming a mainstream trend, authentication methods will continue to morph and advance over time.
estimates the global biometric systems market to reach nearly $43 billion by 2023 and experience exponential growth en route to reaching a value of $82.7 billion by 2027.
Adaptive authentication will also be an area of growth. This emerging MFA solution utilizes artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques to identify additional information about users, such as their location, device and time, in order to contextualize login attempts and detect suspicious activity.
Adaptive MFA measures are essential to protecting against more complex security threats and effectively eliminating malicious actors.
Two-Factor Authentication Is Required For Remote Access
Enterprises should protect themselves against cyber-attacks by authenticating users before providing access to vital systems.
While username and password combinations are the most popular form of authentication, passwords may not always be unique; anyone could exploit weak and compromised passwords to gain entry to corporate networks, putting organizations at risk. In order to mitigate such risks, enterprises must adopt multilayered approaches for user identification in order to reduce these threats.
Given the nature and scope of remote access activities and privileges a privileged user is allowed to access, enterprises should include two-factor authentication (2FA) as part of their strategy for remote access to improve security and accountability.
Compliance standards like PCI-DSS and HIPAA require remote access tools to implement 2FA as a condition for granting remote access; failing to do so could damage an organization's reputation while incurring significant fines.
Access Manager Plus integrates various authentication tools on the market into one convenient package for primary and second-factor authentication, helping organizations adopt a 2FA architecture with a comprehensive security policy.
The Primary Factor Of Authentication
Active Directory/Azure AD Authentication Take advantage of Microsoft's Active Directory authentication capabilities and single sign-on for Windows systems to allow users to log into Access Manager Plus using their AD or Azure AD credentials without providing new credentials each time they access one of their Windows apps using those same credentials.
Likewise, those already logged into these directories with credentials can automatically log into Access Manager Plus as soon as they sign into Windows applications using them - providing seamless synchronization across devices! -
Lightweight Directory Access Protocol LDAP authentication: If Access Manager Plus has been installed on a Linux/Unix machine, administrators can utilize LDAP for authenticating users in any LDAP-compliant directory service, such as Active Directory - including Windows AD! LDAP does not care which operating system it communicates with; all directory services support its implementation regardless of OS compatibility.
Administrators using RADIUS for directory services can take advantage of RADIUS authentication when signing their users into Access Manager Plus.
RADIUS servers can import user details, sync roles, and perform real-time user authentication.
Single Sign-On (SSO): Single Sign-On systems enable access to various systems using one login credential. Access Manager Plus provides this capability through SAML-based Authentication for Okta and Azure AD as well as Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS).
After activation, any users already logged into any of these services using Okta credentials, Azure AD credentials, ADFS credentials, or AD credentials will automatically be authenticated by Access Manager Plus and can continue using them within your system without further verification by Access Manager Plus.
Smart Card PKI/Certificate Authentication: Access Manager Plus' web interface supports smart card technology and SSL client certificate authentication, enabling administrators with smart-card systems to configure it so users entering a PIN or an X.509 certificate need to enter it to gain entry.
Local AuthenticationAccess Manager Plus comes equipped with an authentication database, making it a local server.
Typically, you would create local accounts for users that require temporary accounts on an enterprise server as well as administrators and privileged accounts to break glass. Access Manager Plus' built-in password generator enables you to generate passwords in line with policies enforced by your system administrator.
A Second Factor Of Authentication
Unique password sent via email: To provide additional authentication factors for users, send out unique one-time passwords via email that expire after a set period.
This OTP can serve as an important secondary factor of authentication.
Windows Azure Multiple-Factor Authentication: Formerly known as PhoneFactor, this global provider of telephone-based two-factor authentication (2FA) provides simple yet effective security via a phone confirmation call made to each user during login procedures.
RSA Access: This app generates a token every 60 seconds that must be provided as the first authentication factor and followed up with entering both an RSA SecurID code and PIN as secondary factors for verification.
Time Based One Time Password (TOTP): TOTP, part of OAuth security architecture, is an auto-generated numeric string that authenticates users within a specified amount of time and expires automatically at its designated endpoint.
Access Manager Plus supports any TOTP-based authentication service such as Google Authenticator or Microsoft Authenticator and, therefore, provides instantaneous user verification with every session.
RADIUS-Based 2FA: To implement two-factor authentication (2FA), Access Manager Plus can be integrated with any RADIUS-compliant system, such as Vasco Digipass or AuthAnvil, for which 2FA code similar to TOTP authentication will be generated as a secondary factor after successful primary authentication has taken place.
Security Duo: Security authentication offers cloud-based two-factor authentication (2FA), which enables users to log into Access Manager Plus through mobile applications, SMS texts or phone calls.
Conclusion
Strong authentication methods are vital in order to safeguard the future viability of any organization and reduce risks that could compromise it.
Weak identification can pose serious vulnerabilities within IT systems.
As CISA's Capacity Enhancement Guide demonstrates, assets with weak authentication methods may be used to bypass stronger authentication on systems they connect to; intruders could easily gain entry through reinforced doors with sophisticated locks and large windows.
