Authentication: theoretical aspects

Recently, there has been an intensification of the processes of informatization of society, which is demonstrated by the emergence of a large number of ved-services, an increase in the number of participants in electronic communications, carrying out various operations on the Internet, the spectrum of which will include information search, advertising of goods and services, financial transactions, etc. Electronic governments are being created to provide services to the population within the framework of state management of the economy. Since the trust in such web services must be the highest, it is necessary to form an increased degree of protection for users. Fraud poses a serious danger to participants in electronic communications. There are examples of the development and application of technologies for manufacturing dummies of biometric features of an individual. Thanks to these technologies, attackers commit criminal offenses, which is a completely probable event and a question of the corresponding situation. In connection with the identified problem of fraud, the protection of users of electronic communications becomes a very urgent task. At the same time, protection is considered in the sense of maintaining the confidentiality and integrity of information about users, as well as identifying the degree of availability of information in order to reduce the negative consequences that are possible in the event of a risk of fraud. Authentication is one of the security methods. The main purpose of information system user authentication is to reduce security threats, namely the violation of the confidentiality and integrity of information.Unauthorized access is one of the most common types of violations that poses a direct threat to system performance. Authentication is used to access social networks, e-mail, online shopping, online banking, payment systems, etc. This article discusses the theoretical aspects of such a concept as authentication. Synthesizing the general ideas about authentication found in the scientific literature, the authors of the article reveal the meaning of the named category, present the factors and classification categories of authentication, and demonstrate how to use a group of authentication methods to protect information by establishing the truth of a statement about the identity of something or someone.