Information Assurance and Authentication Technologies Report

This report delves into the realm of information assurance and information technology, focusing on authentication methods. It explores various authentication techniques, including the use of passwords, fingerprints, smart cards, and digital certificates to verify user credentials. The report outlines several authentication protocols such as Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), Microsoft NTLM, and Kerberos, detailing their functionalities and applications. It also highlights the importance of network administrators in configuring user accounts and managing access control. Furthermore, the report strongly supports the use of biometrics, such as fingerprints, retinal scans, and iris patterns, as a secure means of authentication due to their uniqueness and accuracy. The report also acknowledges the cost associated with biometric systems and compares their advantages to other methods like smart cards. The references provided support the arguments made in the report.

Running head: INFORMATION ASSURANCE AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
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Information assurance and information technology:
Name:
Institution:

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Information assurance and information technology
Authentication is a simple process that allows various users to give some credentials such as
passwords, fingerprints, smart cards, and a digital certificate. These credentials allow the
customers to log in to the system. And for the authentications to be made effective then there are
methods and protocols which will be used. Authentication is a process that allows the user to
possess a user account which is valid and that shows the rights and permission of the user.
Additionally, Network administrators are the one who are responsible configuring the account.
When the client’s needs to login to the system, then they are required to key in their credentials,
where the system will check in the database and make a clear comparison to see if the
credentials are the same. If the comparison is similar then with that in the database then the user
will be allowed to access into the system.
There exists various authentication protocols and methods that can be utilized based on the
security requirements and applications. They include the following:
Secure sockets layer (SSL) - this is a kind of protocol that is used to give access to the web sites
securely by utilizing secret key encryption and public key Encryption altogether. The technology
of the secret key technology is faster while the public key gives better authentication, so
designing of SSL will get benefits from both keys (Ogbanufe, & Kim, 2018).
Microsoft NTLM also known as NT LAN – NTLM Authentication is utilized by the windows
server to validate customers to an NT domain (Ide, Kamata, Minagawa, Higashiura, & Kasugai,
2015). Windows 2000 utilizes by default the Kerberos authentication but it will keep backing for
NTLM authentication of the customers’ networks and Microsoft servers.
Kerberos- This kind of protocol was created specifically at MIT to give authentication which is
secured for the UNIX networks. Kerberos utilizes short-term certificates which are known as

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tickets, which is consisting of credentials that direct the clients to the network server. The
updated Kerberos version is consists of encrypted tickets which include the passwords. A key
distribution center (KDC) is a service that runs on the server network, which gives out Ticket
granting Ticket to the users that authenticates to Ticket granting service (TGS).
I strongly agree that biometrics can be very useful for these kinds of information. Authentication
biometrics entails the utilization of biological statistics which demonstrate that there would be a
probability of the two users having the same biological features like fingerprints so that this
biological can be utilized in the identification of the person. Moreover, retinal, iris patterns,
voice, and fingerprints are unique to every person thus they can be used for authentication
(Odelu, Das, & Goswami, 2015). The methods of proving individual identify using biometrics
are very accurate and it needs the equipment which is very expensive for it to be function well.
The advantage of this kind of biometric as compared to the smart cards is that the user needs no
to carry the device it is just done on using some body parts such as eye and fingers.

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References
Ogbanufe, O., & Kim, D. J. (2018). Comparing fingerprint-based biometrics authentication
versus traditional authentication methods for e-payment. Decision Support Systems, 106,
1-14.
Ide, K., Kamata, H., Minagawa, A., Higashiura, Y., & Kasugai, K. (2015). U.S. Patent No.
9,098,755. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Odelu, V., Das, A. K., & Goswami, A. (2015). A secure biometrics-based multi-server
authentication protocol using smart cards. IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics
and Security, 10(9), 1953-1966.