CompTIA Security+™: Review Guide

3.8. Explain the difference between identification and authentication (identity proofing).

Identification and authentication are commonly used as a two-step process, but they are distinct activities. Identification is the claiming of an identity. This only needs to occur once per authentication or access process. Any one of the three common authentication factors can be employed for identification. Once identification has been performed, the authentication process must take place. Authentication is the act of verifying or proving the claimed identity. The issue is both checking that such identity actually exists within the known accounts of the secured environment and also ensuring that the human claiming the identity is the correct, valid, ...