Identity: Who Are You?
An identity is what makes you, you. The answer to what an identity is depends on the context it is
used in. As a citizen of a country, your identity revolves around your person, your offi cial name and
birth date, and maybe even a Social Security number. However, for a website like p2p.wrox.com,
Wrox’s community website, your identity may be as little as your e-mail address.
No matter what you include in an identity, it is a way to refer to you. But how does anyone else
know you? And how can they be sure it’s really you when you log on to a website, for example? This
is where authentication enters the game