--Originally published at El Machetero Blog´s
Maybe in some occasion you have wonder why you have to identify yourself EVERY SINGLE TIME that you want to log in to your email, favorite game, or even your computer, well this is all for your own safety, there exist these concepts called Authentication, Authorization and Access Control, that even thought some people take as if they were the same, because normally end users aren´t aware of the whole process, you just put your username and password and magic´s done
The first step is the authentication a.k.a inputting your user and password, well most of the times, there´s also other ways to identify yourself like, PIN, facial recognition, fingerprint, or a secret code just to name some examples, this last one it´s used very often for something called two steps verification which is a simple procedure designed to increase your security because it´s really easy that someone steals your password. The two steps verification its used by some companies like Sony in the PlayStation, also Google and Telegram have an option to turn it on. But not everything is perfect, a “disadvantage” of this method is that it´s a little bit annoying, but if you don´t bother, unless you also lose your cellphone or whichever device in which you receive the code, it´s WAY SAFER.
We can divide the methods of authentication in three:
- With something you know, like the password, PIN, etc.
- Something you have, like a smart-card
- By who you are or what you do, like voice recognition or fingerprint
But why is this useful, would´t be easier if they let me in without asking anything??
MMM all this just to know WHO ARE YOU?????
This lead us to the Authorization, this is just a system verification of what you can do depending of who you are it´s
It depends on if you have common user privileges, maybe you´re able to access some more relevant info, or you have “God” privileges because you´re the administrator and can do anything
The last part it´s the Access Control, and this is like a combination of Authentication and Authorization, here we use the information of who are you and what you have access, to determine if you can or not do something, and in case you´re not allowed to do so, well it just don´t let you, it´s like the bouncer at the clubs.
