Identity management

Electronic identity is an attribute or set of characteristics that uniquely identify an "Entity" within the "Information System" (IS). Each IS in cyberspace trusts its identity records/repositories, which are often central directory services such as Microsoft Active Directory.

Identity management (IDM) is a system for managing the entire life cycle of identities. One of the main advantages is centralized administration, allowing management identities on multiple interconnected IS, which brings increased security and productivity. To use the services of these IS, we must prove our electronic identity. This process is called authentication and uses various identification resources (IDs). The primary ID resource is a password. Higher levels of trust can be achieved, for example, through certificates, implementation of a Certificate Authority, and PKI. We can achieve the highest levels of trust by using multiple resource IDs simultaneously. Then we talk about Multi-Factor Authentication.