E-authentication is a shorthand for electronic authentication. Authentication is a process closely related to identification. In online environments, the username identifies the user, while the password authenticates that the user is whom he claim to be.
Infrastructure to support e-authentication is regarded as an important component in successful e-Government.[1] Poor coordination and poor technical design might be major barriers to electronic authentication.[2]
In several countries there has been established nationwide common e-authentication schemes to ease the reuse of digital identities in different electronic services.[3] Other policy initiatives have included the creation of frameworks for electronic authentication, in order to establish common levels of trust and possibly interoperability between different authentication schemes.[4]
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E-Authentication is a centerpiece of the United States government’s effort to expand electronic government, or E-Government, as a way of making government more effective and efficient and easier for the American people to access.
The E-Authentication service enables you to get access to government services online using log-in IDs (identity credentials) you already have from Web sites that you - and the government - trust.
By enabling the government to rely on log-in IDs that citizens already have from trusted identity credential issuers (such as Web sites and digital certificate issuers), E-Authentication is providing a simple, convenient, secure way for the American public to access government services via the Internet.
E-Authentication is a government-wide partnership that is supported by the agencies that comprise the Federal CIO Council. The United States General Services Administration (GSA) is the lead agency partner.
E-Authentication works through an association with a trusted credential issuer, making it necessary for the user to login into the issuer’s site to obtain the authentication credentials. Those credentials or E-Authentication ID are then transferred the supporting government web site causing authentication.
E-Authentication was created in response of an inter-governmental memorandum to the heads of all government departments and agencies on December 16, 2003. That memorandum was issued through the Executive Office of the President, Office of Management and Budget. Memorandum M04-04 Whitehouse
That memorandum updates the guidance issued under the Government Paperwork Elimination Act of 1998, 44 U.S.C. § 3504 and implements section 203 of the E-Government Act, 44 U.S.C. ch. 36 and provides guidelines for governmental departments and agencies when implementing E-Authentication.