What does Authentication mean?

Authentication procedures are the measures employed by financial institutions to ensure that the entity requesting access to an online system is genuine and is what or who it claims to be, and to prevent, via authentication certificates, passwords or other identification procedures or devices, any unauthorized or inappropriate access. When dealing with credit cards the authentication process is determining whether the transaction was initiated by an authorized user of the specific card.

From a merchant’s point of view this means getting the correct information from the client, and verifying it with the help of a transaction network. Authentication has been improving in recent years by means that include security codes on credit and debit cards.