A Survey on User Authentication Factors

Today, digital information decisively permeates all aspects of modern society. In such a connected world, one of the critical factors in maintaining the security of transmitted data is user authentication, which establishes confidence in the user identities presented to an information system. Over time, the definition of user authentication has not changed; however, a simple password is no longer the only factor used for authenticating a user. Two-factor Authentication (2FA) and Multi-factor Authentication (MFA) were proposed to provide a high level of security by adding more than one layer of authentication. For the most part, these layers of Authentication are based on knowledge, ownership, biometrics, and/or users' behaviors. This paper presents and analyzes authentication factors that are utilized to authenticate a user and prove his/her identity to a resource.