Introduction to Web Authentication

How are web applications made secure?

Many web applications are fully functional without logging users in, creating accounts or securing data. For example, Google search, Wikipedia, and Stack Overflow do not require accounts. On the other hand, we won’t get far with Amazon, Facebook, or Quora without creating an account, even if we can see some content without one. Creating and managing accounts is slightly more complicated than just making a regular website. We must customize the site to each user, and their information must be protected from other users. Every user-specific interaction must be authenticated. This means that the server must know who the user is and be sure that it isn’t someone else. Generally, this is done using a password. When the password is entered, the server can be assured that they are connecting with the legitimate user. A web application requires a large number of individual interactions. A user will quickly tire of re-entering their password for each interaction, for example, for each letter guessed in our Langman game.