Machine Authentication

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What Does Machine Authentication Mean?

Machine authentication is the process of general authentication of a machine over wired or wireless networks when the machine is a “supplicant” seeking to access or share information or accomplish some other type of digital interaction. Machine authentication happens in different ways in various IT setups, but generally involves a “digital certificate” such as in the SSL protocol used on the internet.

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Machine authentication is also known simply as machine auth.

Techopedia Explains Machine Authentication

The idea of machine authentication relies on the use of common technologies. For instance, the dominant end user operating system Windows from Microsoft uses Active Directory and other resources to “do machine authentication” a certain way, which has framed what users have come to expect in the case that they actually think about machine authentication at all. Some confuse machine auth with “user auth” and do not understand the process of auth machines, which again, happens differently depending on many factors. The bottom line is that machine authentication is needed for digital security.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology expert

Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret’s idea of ​​a fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.