Authentication in mobile distributed environment

Use of mobile personal systems in an open distributed environment raises several issues with regard to information security and system dependability. The author addresses one key aspect of information security in such a mobile distributed environment namely that of authentication. The author considers the nature of the security threat, and how it may arise in practical situations. Then the author describes the characteristics of the required authentication security service to counteract this threat. In particular, the author outlines some of the common mechanisms that can be used to provide authentication. These issues are illustrated by considering some scenarios in the areas of mobile personal informations systems and client server based distributed systems, and show how the authentication mechanisms can be used to counteract the masquerading threat