How Authentication and Identification Work Together to Build Digital Trust

How Authentication and Identification Work Together to Build Digital Trust

The dictionary definition of trust, according to Merriam-Webster, is the “assured reliance on the … truth of someone or something.” In today’s digital world, trust can be a tricky concept. To do business online, whether you are a bank, retailer, insurer, airline or anything else, you must have some degree of trust in your user — trust that they are who they say they are and not a fraudster or malicious bot attempting to steal money or data. But building trust in an online or mobile user can be more difficult and nuanced than it appears. It requires both identification and authentication.


The Truth About Identity


We can think of the “truth of someone” as their identity. The first step toward understanding a digital user’s identity is known simply as identification. This is just the ability to uniquely identify a user. It is the process by which a user makes a claim about who they are. A user could identify themselves with their full name or an account number, or an identity claim could be as simple as a username. In many cases, such as when opening a new account, this identity must be provisioned or proved initially.


Identification Is Not Authentication


Identification alone, though, is not enough to establish trust in any given digital interaction. Just because you tell me your name is Sam doesn’t mean I should believe you. Certainly, I shouldn’t give you access to Sam’s life savings based solely on that interaction. Trust is an assured reliance on that claimed identity. Assured reliance comes in the form of authentication. Authentication is commonly defined as the ability to prove that a user is g ..

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