Authentication and the Role of Tokens

Authentication is an important part of any system or application security. It is the basis for any access control that is needed over information that is in the system or authorization for any transactions that could be carried out. To provide stronger authentication, tokens are increasingly being used to add an additional dimension or factor of authentication and to reduce the risk of an attacker impersonating a user. There are generally three different factors that are used in authenticating a user. These factors are something you know such as a password, something you have, which could be a token device and something you are which may be implemented through biometrics such as fingerprints or other physical characteristics. This chapter will give an overview of authentication, the use of different factors of authentication to establish an identity and some of the risks associated with the use of the different factors of authentication and how tokens can be used to mitigate some of them.