Mastering Blockchain - Second Edition

Entity authentication

Entity authentication is the assurance that an entity is currently involved and active in a communication session. Traditionally, users are issued a username and password that is used to gain access to the various platforms with which they are working. This practice is known as single-factor authentication, as there is only one factor involved, namely, something you know, that is, the password and username. This type of authentication is not very secure for a variety of reasons, for example, password leakage; therefore, additional factors are now commonly used to provide better security. The use of additional techniques for user identification is known as multifactor authentication (or two-factor authentication if only ...