What is authentication used for?

• A. A method of proving your identity, ensuring only certain users can access a given system
• B. A backup encryption process
• C. A network monitoring technique
• D. A data compression method

Answer: (A)

Authentication is the process of proving who you are to a system so that only you can access it. It uses credentials like passwords, biometrics, or tokens to confirm identity, which helps keep accounts and resources secure from unauthorized access. Once identity is verified, the system can then decide what you’re allowed to do. The other ideas describe different things: encryption protects data from being read by others, network monitoring watches traffic on a network, and data compression reduces the size of data for storage or transmission.