Opening the book…
5.1.1. Authentication and Identification
Authentication
Authentication is the process of verifying whether someone (or something) is, in fact, who (or what) it is declared to be.
According to the National Institute of Standards and Technology authentication is defined as “verifying the identity of a user, process, or device, often as a prerequisite to allowing access to resources in an information system".
Notice that this definition does not restrict authentication to human users. It includes processes or devices.
he ways in which someone may be authenticated fall into four categories, based on what is known as the factors of authentication:
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 work product, granting authority to others, and establishing a chain of authority.
Security research has determined that for a positive authentication, elements from at least 2, and preferably all 3, of the main factors should be verified.
The four factors (classes) and some of the elements of each factor are:
- Knowledge: Something the user knows (e.g., a password, partial password, passphrase, personal identification number (PIN), challenge-response (the user must answer a question or pattern), security question).
- Ownership or possession: Something the user possesses (e.g., wrist band, ID card, security token, implanted device, cell phone with a built-in hardware token, software token, or cell phone holding a software token).
- Inherence: Something the user is or does [e.g., fingerprint, retinal pattern, DNA sequence (there are assorted definitions of what is sufficient), signature, face, voice, unique bio-electric signals, or other biometric identifiers].
- Location: Somewhere the user is (e.g. connection to a specific computing network or using a GPS signal to identify the location).
Multi-factor authentication
Multi-factor authentication is an electronic authentication method in which a computer user is granted access to a website or application only after successfully presenting two or more pieces of factors to an authentication mechanism:
- knowledge,
- possession, and
- inherence.
It protects the user from an unknown person trying to access their data such as personal ID details or financial assets.
Authentication takes place when someone tries to log into a computer resource (such as a network, device, or application).
The resource requires the user to supply the identity by which the user is known to the resource, along with evidence of the authenticity of the user's claim to that identity.
Simple authentication requires only one such piece of evidence (factor), typically a password.
For additional security, the resource may require more than one factor—multi-factor authentication, or two-factor authentication in cases where exactly two pieces of evidence are to be supplied.
The use of multiple authentication factors to prove one's identity is based on the premise that an unauthorized actor is unlikely to be able to supply the factors required for access.
If in an authentication attempt, at least one of the components is missing or supplied incorrectly, the user's identity is not established with sufficient certainty and access to the asset (e.g., a building, or data) being protected by multi-factor authentication then remains blocked.
| PGCC MFA screen. Image by Luis R Castellanos, Public Domain, Own work. |
Mutual authentication
Mutual authentication or two-way authentication (not to be confused with two-factor authentication) refers to two parties authenticating each other at the same time in an authentication protocol.
It was previously referred to as “mutual entity authentication,” as two or more entities verify the others' legality before any data or information is transmitted.
Mutual authentication is a desired characteristic in verification schemes that transmit sensitive data, in order to ensure data security.
Mutual authentication is found in two types of schemes: username-password-based schemes and certificate-based schemes, and these schemes are often employed in the Internet of Things (IoT).
Writing effective security schemes in IoT systems can become challenging, especially when needing schemes to be lightweight and have low computational costs.
Mutual authentication is a crucial security step that can defend against many adversarial attacks, which otherwise can have large consequences if IoT systems (such as e-Healthcare servers) are hacked.
In scheme analyses done of past works, a lack of mutual authentication had been considered a weakness in data transmission schemes.
Password
A password, sometimes called a passcode, is a memorized secret, typically a string of characters, usually used to confirm a user's identity.
According to NIST:
"The secret is memorized by a party called the claimant while the party verifying the identity of the claimant is called the verifier. When the claimant successfully demonstrates knowledge of the password to the verifier through an established authentication protocol, the verifier is able to infer the claimant's identity".
In general, a password is an arbitrary string of characters including letters, digits, or other symbols.
If the permissible characters are constrained to be numeric, the corresponding secret is sometimes called a personal identification number (PIN).
Despite its name, a password does not need to be an actual word; indeed, a non-word (in the dictionary sense) may be harder to guess, which is a desirable property of passwords.
A memorized secret consisting of a sequence of words or other text separated by spaces is sometimes called a passphrase. A passphrase is like a password in usage, but the former is generally longer for added security.
Choosing a secure and memorable password
The easier a password is for the owner to remember generally means it will be easier for an attacker to guess. However, passwords that are difficult to remember may also reduce the security of a system because
- users might need to write down or electronically store the password,
- users will need frequent password resets
- users are more likely to re-use the same password across different accounts.
Similarly, the more stringent the password requirements, such as "have a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters and digits" or "change it monthly", the greater the degree to which users will subvert the system.
Others argue longer passwords provide more security (e.g., entropy) than shorter passwords with a wide variety of characters.
J Yan et al (and others) found that passwords based on thinking of a phrase and taking the first letter of each word are just as memorable as naively selected passwords, and just as hard to crack as randomly generated passwords.
| Password generated by a passphrase. Image by Luis R Castellanos, Public Domain, Own work. |
Combining two or more unrelated words and altering some of the letters to special characters or numbers is another good method, but a single dictionary word is not.
Having a personally designed algorithm for generating obscure passwords is another good method.
Leet, or leetspeak, is a method of typing words using alternate characters. (P.e. apple --> @pp13)
In 2013, Google released a list of the most common password types, all of which are considered insecure because they are too easy to guess (especially after researching an individual on social media):
- The name of a pet, child, family member, or significant other
- Anniversary dates and birthdays
- Birthplace
- Name of a favorite holiday
- Something related to a favorite sports team
- The word "password"
Top 200 Most Common Passwords, according to Nordpass
Strong Password
A strong password is hard to detect both by humans and by the computer.
Two things make a password stronger:
- a larger number of characters (and the more characters, the stronger the password),
- mixing numeric digits, upper and lower case letters, and special characters ($, #, etc.).
Passwords are typically case-sensitive, so a strong password contains letters in both uppercase and lowercase.
A strong password is not a word that can be found in a dictionary or the name of a person, character, product, or organization, significantly different from your previous passwords, and easy for you to remember but difficult for others to guess.
Consider using a memorable phrase like "6MonkeysRLooking^".
Limits on the # of password guesses
An alternative to limiting the rate at which an attacker can make guesses on a password is to limit the total number of guesses that can be made.
Password can be disabled, requiring a reset, after a small number of consecutive bad guesses (let’s say 3 or 5); and the user may be required to change the password after a larger cumulative number of bad guesses (let´s say 30).
Attackers may conversely use knowledge of this mitigation to implement a denial of service attack against the user by intentionally locking the user out of their own device.
This denial of service may open other avenues for the attacker to manipulate the situation to their advantage via social engineering.
Brute force
A brute force attack is a hacking method that uses trial and error to crack passwords, login credentials, and encryption keys.
It is a simple yet reliable tactic for gaining unauthorized access to individual accounts and organizations’ systems and networks.
The hacker tries multiple usernames and passwords, often using a computer to test a wide range of combinations, until they find the correct login information.
Time it takes a hacker to brute force your password, according to Hive Systems
Identification
Identification is basically the process of someone claiming to be a specific person. They can identify themselves as “Pat”, show an id card of some type of card with a name on it, or have an email address showing their name.
In the current context of online transactions, users “identify” themselves by providing a name, an email address, or phone number to a web request.
For example, using a process of identification alone, as long as a buyer has the card’s proper information that is associated with the card being used, the user is pretty much accepted as is.
A business that allows identification by itself is essentially saying, "We have no reason to doubt that you are indeed the person you claim to be", despite having not independently verified if the information is truthful.
It’s like asking, “Who are you?” and simply accepting whatever answer is given.
For transactions where there is not a lot at stake, like registering for a class or checking out a book, simply having someone declare their identity without providing any verification may be good enough.
It is becoming more and more frequent that identification alone is adequate. It’s like having a username without a password.
So how can we determine the person is who they say they are? That’s where verification comes in.
Verification
Verification goes beyond the basic question, “Who are you?”
Identity verification goes the extra mile and asks, “Are you really who you say you are?” the response needs to provide, a high degree of confidence that, the answer is accurate.
The most accurate way to verify someone's identity is to request and validate more than one form of identification against the person standing in front of you, with at least one of them being a photo ID.
A driver's license, a valid passport, or military photo identification are some forms of identification.
Verifying someone’s identity to a high degree of certainty takes effort.
At a time when service providers want to provide a “frictionless” onboarding process, some may cut corners and require a low barrier to entry.
Typical social media accounts, for example, only ask new users to provide a name, email address, username, and password.
A phone number may be thrown in there for good measure.
Depending on the organization and the level of assurance needed, a university ID or other non-government issued identification card may suffice for one form of ID.
Identity verification in the electronic sense also called identity "proofing" or "vetting", is used to confirm an identity where the individual is not standing before you to show some sort of picture ID.
In these cases, most organizations require a real-time process that validates the personal information provided by the individual.
Apply for a bank account, though, and you may be expected to provide a social security number, photo ID or passport, and proof of your current address.
The stakes associated with a bank account are much greater than those with a TikTok account, therefore the verification requirements are more stringent.
In fact, in the financial sector alone, there are numerous regulatory acts to prevent fraudsters from setting up false bank accounts, laundering money, and other unseemly criminal activities.
The compliance mandates associated with these regulations are not satisfied by traditional verification methods, which is why businesses are beginning to make a shift to pairing a customer’s identity information with one of their biometric markers at the point of onboarding.
Verification in Bank of America, in order to open an account:
To open a personal bank account at Bank of America, you need a Social Security number or ITIN, a valid U.S. residential address, an email address, a primary photo ID like a driver's license or passport, and funds for your opening deposit.
5.1.2. Information Security Triad
The Information Security Triad, also known as the CIA triad, is a guide for organizations. This guide helps them make policies to protect information security. In this context, the CIA means the following:
- Confidentiality – set of rules that limit access to information
- Integrity – the assurance that the information is reliable and correct
- Availability – a guarantee of reliable access to the information
Confidentiality
When protecting information, we want to be able to restrict access to those who are allowed to see it; everyone else should be disallowed from learning anything about its contents. This is the essence of confidentiality.
For example, federal law requires that universities restrict access to private student information. The university must be sure that only those who are authorized have access to view the grade records.
Integrity
Integrity is the assurance that the information being accessed has not been altered and truly represents what is intended. Just as a person with integrity means what he or she says and can be trusted to consistently represent the truth, information integrity means information truly represents its intended meaning.
Information can lose its integrity through malicious intent, such as when someone who is not authorized makes a change to intentionally misrepresent something.
An example of this would be when a hacker is hired to go into the university’s system and change a grade.
Integrity can also be lost unintentionally, such as when a computer power surge corrupts a file or someone authorized to make a change accidentally deletes a file or enters incorrect information.
Availability
Information availability is the third part of the CIA triad.
Availability means that information can be accessed and modified by anyone authorized to do so in an appropriate timeframe.
Depending on the type of information, an appropriate timeframe can mean different things.
For example, a stock trader needs information to be available immediately, while a salesperson may be happy to get sales numbers for the day in a report the next morning.
Companies such as Amazon.com will require their servers to be available twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Other companies may not suffer if their web servers are down for a few minutes once in a while.
Tools for Information Security
In order to ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information, organizations can choose from a variety of tools. Each of these tools can be utilized as a part of an overall information-security policy.
- Access Control
- Encryption
- Backups
- Firewalls
- Intrusion Detection Systems
- Physical Security
- Security Policies
Access control
Access control determines which users are authorized to read, modify, add, and/or delete information.
- For each information resource that an organization wishes to manage, a list of users who have the ability to take specific actions can be created. This is an access control list or ACL.
- With RBAC (role based access control), instead of giving specific users access rights to an information resource, users are assigned to roles and then those roles are assigned access.
Encryption
Encryption is a process of encoding data upon its transmission or storage so that only authorized individuals can read it. This encoding is accomplished by a computer program, which encodes the plain text that needs to be transmitted; then the recipient receives the ciphertext and decodes it (decryption).
The sender and receiver need to agree on the method of encoding so that both parties can communicate properly.
| Simple Encryption. Michel Bakni, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons |
Backups
Not only should the data on the corporate servers be backed up, but individual computers used throughout the organization should also be backed up.
- An organization should make a full inventory of all of the information that needs to be backed up and determine the best way to back it up.
- Regular backups of all data
- Offsite storage of backup data sets
- Test of data restoration
Firewalls
A firewall can exist as hardware or software (or both).
A hardware firewall is a device that is connected to the network and filters the packets based on a set of rules. A software firewall runs on the operating system and intercepts packets as they arrive at a computer.
A firewall protects all company servers and computers by stopping packets from outside the organization’s network that does not meet a strict set of criteria.
| Firewall. Image by YuguDesign from Pixabay. |
Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS)
- An IDS does not add any additional security; instead, it provides the functionality to identify if the network is being attacked.
- An IDS can be configured to watch for specific types of activities and then alert security personnel if that activity occurs.
- An IDS also can log various types of traffic on the network for analysis later.
- An IDS is an essential part of any good security setup.
Physical Security
Physical security is the protection of the actual hardware and networking components that store and transmit information resources.
To implement physical security, an organization must identify all of the vulnerable resources and take measures to ensure that these resources cannot be physically tampered with or stolen. These measures include the following:
- Locked doors
- Physical intrusion detection
- Secured equipment
- Environmental (temp) monitoring
- Employee training
Security Policies
According to the SANS Institute, a good policy is
“a formal, brief, and high-level statement or plan that embraces an organization’s general beliefs, goals, objectives, and acceptable procedures for a specified subject area.”
Policies require compliance; failure to comply with a policy will result in disciplinary action. A policy does not lay out the specific technical details, instead it focuses on the desired results. A security policy should be based on the guiding principles of confidentiality, integrity, and availability.
Usability
When looking to secure information resources, organizations must balance the need for security with users’ need to effectively access and use these resources. If a system’s security measures make it difficult to use, then users will find ways around the security, which may make the system more vulnerable than it would have been without the security measures!
Take, for example, password policies. If the organization requires an extremely long password with several special characters, an employee may resort to writing it down and putting it in a drawer since it will be impossible to memorize.
Personal Information Security
Some measures that each of us, as individual users, can take to secure our computing technologies.
There is no way to have 100% security, but there are several simple steps we, as individuals, can take to make ourselves more secure.
- Keep your software up to date. Whenever a software vendor determines that a security flaw has been found in their software, they will release an update to the software that you can download to fix the problem. Turn on automatic updating on your computer to automate this process.
- Install antivirus software and keep it up to date. There are many good antivirus software packages on the market today, including free ones.
- Back up your data. Just as organizations need to back up their data, individuals need to as well. And the same rules apply: do it regularly and keep a copy of it in another location. One simple solution for this is to set up an account with an online backup service, such as Mozy or Carbonite, to automate your backups, or storage applications as Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive.
- Be smart about your connections. You should be aware of your surroundings. When connecting to a Wi-Fi network in a public place, be aware that you could be at risk of being spied on by others sharing that network. It is advisable not to access your financial or personal data while attached to a Wi-Fi hotspot. You should also be aware that connecting USB flash drives to your device could also put you at risk. Do not attach an unfamiliar flash drive to your device unless you can scan it first with your security software.
- Secure your accounts with two-factor authentication. Most e-mail and social media providers now have a two-factor authentication option. The way this works is simple: when you log in to your account from an unfamiliar computer for the first time, it sends you a text message with a code that you must enter to confirm that you are really you. This means that no one else can log in to your accounts without knowing your password and having your mobile phone with them.
- Make your passwords long, strong, and unique. For your personal passwords, you should follow the same rules that are recommended for organizations. Your passwords should be long (ten or more characters) and contain at least two of the following: upper-case letters, numbers, and special characters. You also should use different passwords for different accounts, so that if someone steals your password for one account, they still are locked out of your other accounts.
- Be suspicious of strange links and attachments. When you receive an e-mail, tweet, or Facebook post, be suspicious of any links or attachments included there. Do not click on the link directly if you are at all suspicious. Instead, if you want to access the website, find it yourself and navigate to it directly.
5.1.3. Mobile Security
As the use of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets proliferates, organizations must be ready to address the unique security concerns that the use of these devices brings.
One of the first questions an organization must consider is whether to allow mobile devices in the workplace at all.
Many employees already have these devices, so the question becomes: Should we allow employees to bring their own devices and use them as part of their employment activities? Or should we provide the devices to our employees?
Creating a BYOD (“Bring Your Own Device”) policy allows employees to integrate themselves more fully into their job and can bring higher employee satisfaction and productivity.
In many cases, it may be virtually impossible to prevent employees from having their own smartphones or iPads in the workplace.
If the organization provides the devices to its employees, it gains more control over use of the devices, but it also exposes itself to the possibility of an administrative (and costly) mess.
Mobile devices can pose many unique security challenges to an organization.
Probably one of the biggest concerns is the theft of intellectual property.
For an employee with malicious intent, it would be a very simple process to connect a mobile device either to a computer via the USB port, or wirelessly to the corporate network, and download confidential data.
It would also be easy to secretly take a high-quality picture using a built-in camera.
When an employee does have permission to access and save company data on his or her device, a different security threat emerges: that device now becomes a target for thieves. Theft of mobile devices (in this case, including laptops) is one of the primary methods that data thieves use.
So, what can be done to secure mobile devices? It will start with a good policy regarding their use.
According to a 2013 SANS study, organizations should consider developing a mobile device policy that addresses the following issues: use of the camera, use of voice recording, application purchases, encryption at rest, Wi-Fi auto-connect settings, Bluetooth settings, VPN use, password settings, lost or stolen device reporting, and backup.
Besides policies, there are several different tools that an organization can use to mitigate some of these risks.
For example, if a device is stolen or lost, geolocation software can help the organization find it.
In some cases, it may even make sense to install remote data-removal software, which will remove data from a device if it becomes a security risk.
Google: Find your phone
Apple: Find your device
PGCC. INT1010: Concepts in Computing. Libretexts. 2021. Link.
| Banner image by MadartzGraphics from Pixabay |
This page titled 5.1: Information Systems Security was last modified on Thu, 10 Sep 2026 02:06:33 GMT and is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Luis Castellanos Hurtado.
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