Data Protection and Security

VII

Identification and Entity Authentication

VII.I

Introduction

There are two types of authentication:

• entity authentication is to allow one party (the verifier) to gain assurance that the identity of another (the claimant) is as declared, thereby preventing impersonation.[more]

Sessions: [1]

VII.II

Passwords

The phrase password-based authentication refers to the procedure that involves a secret quantity (the password) that you state to prove you know it. [more]

VII.III

Authentication Protocols

In the previous section, we have seen that transmission of cleartext password poses eavesdropping risks and a common attack is “listen to the channel, steal the password and replay it later”. [more]

VII.IV

Biometrics and Smartcards

Biometric devices measure physical characteristics of users and match them against the user profile. [more]

VII.V

Phishing Attacks

In a recent article, Bruce Schneier has claimed that multifactor authentication technology most banks do offer to customers nowadays is too late and too little. [more]

VII.VI

Summary

One of the essential security services is authentication. In this chapter, we first explore password-based authentication and see its drawbacks in section 2. [more]