The Wolf, the Kid, and the Goat
You probably have heard of this popular fable before.
Mother Goat in her wisdom had carefully secured her house and her Kid before going out. She even reminded her Kid to check the password before opening the door. Her password was good. It was very long and contained non-alphabets and special characters.
As fate had it, a Wolf was nearby, he eavesdropped and learned of the mother’s password. He was so sure of filling his belly. He even mimicked the way mother Goat softly said her password
Yet the Kid was clever. He asked to see a white paw, a feature only the mother Goat has.
Not having that extra authentication factor, the Wolf knew he has failed and left.
“Two sureties are better than one ”— The Wolf, the Kid, and the mother Goat
What is 2-Factors Authentication in plain English?
The 2 Factors
As the fable demonstrates, mother Goat and her Kid used 2 factors to successfully secure their home and fend off attempts by the big bad Wolf. The 2 factors are:
- The password: “Down with the Wolf and all his race!”
- The white paw: a biological feature that only mother Goat has
Coincidentally, modern IT systems also commonly use this combination of a password and a biological factor (iris, fingerprint, face) to authenticate users.
What is Authentication?
Authentication is the Kid doing what he needed to do to be sure the one knocking on his door is indeed his mother.
In our modern context, authentication is a security system showing a login form, asking for user name, password, and an extra OTP via SMS or push notification… to ascertain the user attempting to log in is indeed a true and verified user.
In other words, authentication is the process of determining if users are indeed who they claim to be.
So in plain English…
2FA is the Kid using a combination of a secured password and a biological feature to let only his true mother in the house.
It is also the modern secured system using another factor besides the traditional password mechanism to validate its logon user. The extra factor is commonly chosen from something the user has (e.g. the phone number able to receive SMS) or something the user is (e.g. fingerprint).