System Fundamentals For Cyber Security/Authentication/Methods of Authentication

The ways in which someone may be authenticated fall into three categories, known as the factors of authentication:

  • The ownership factor - Something the user has
  • The knowledge factor - Something the user knows
  • The Inherence factor - Something the user is or does

Each authentication factor covers a range of elements used to authenticate or verify a person's identity prior to being granted access, approving a transaction request, signing a document or other product, granding authority to others, or establishing a chain of authority.

Security research has determined that for a positive authentication, elements from at least two, and preferably all three, factors should be verified.


Source: https://csf102.dfcsc.uri.edu/wiki/System_Fundamentals_For_Cyber_Security/Authentication/Methods_of_Authentication
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