This document discusses several aspects of user authentication for access to various networked services at the University of Kansas.
Authentication is the process of verifying the identity of a user.
For example, the university might like to make enrollment records available through a Web or other online system, but must restrict access to student records to authorized individuals. Ideally, the authentication process would establish user identity without revealing that identity to any observer. Here is a basic model of an approach to an authentication system. This exchange would be encrypted though there are probably complexities of industrial-strength encryption here that must be considered. To get an account, a user would come to the Computer Center or Strong Hall or some such location, present IDs and be assigned an account.