autentimises

Autentimises is a framework and ecosystem for digital authentication and identity assurance designed to verify that a user, device, or process is genuine, trustworthy, and authorized to act. It combines cryptographic attestations, decentralized identifiers, and behavioral signals to provide verifiable proof of authenticity across online services and devices.

The term arose in cybersecurity discourse in the late 2020s as an approach to address credential theft, phishing, and account takeovers. It was proposed by a consortium of researchers and industry practitioners seeking interoperable, privacy-respecting authentication without relying solely on passwords.

How it works: Autentimises relies on cryptographic keys stored in secure elements or trusted platform modules; device attestation; verifiable credentials; zero-knowledge proofs; risk signals; and policy-based authorization. When a user tries to authenticate, the system issues an autentimisation token that proves legitimacy without exposing credentials. It can operate with standard identity providers while adding a layer of attestations.

Applications include online banking, enterprise access, e-commerce, cloud services, IoT ecosystems, and cross-border services. The approach aims to reduce phishing risk and support continuous authentication and stronger session integrity.

Challenges and criticism focus on the need for widespread adoption and standardized formats, concerns about privacy and data minimization, potential performance overhead, governance of credential revocation, and alignment with regulatory regimes.

See also: digital identity, authentication, verifiable credentials, zero-knowledge proofs.