Preface Standards development within the Information Technology sector is harmonized with international standards development. Through the CSA Technical Committee on Information Technology (TCIT), Canadians serve as the Canadian Advisory Committee (CAC) on ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee 1 on Information Technology (ISO/IEC JTC1) for the Standards Council of Canada (SCC), the ISO member body for Canada and sponsor of the Canadian National Committee of the IEC. Also, as a member of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Canada participates in the International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee (ITU-T). At the time of publication, ISO/IEC 9798-1:2010 is available from ISO and IEC in English only. CSA will publish the French version when it becomes available from ISO and IEC. Scope This part of ISO/IEC 9798 specifies an authentication model and general requirements and constraints for entity authentication mechanisms which use security techniques. These mechanisms are used to corroborate that an entity is the one that is claimed. An entity to be authenticated proves its identity by showing its knowledge of a secret. The mechanisms are defined as exchanges of information between entities and, where required, exchanges with a trusted third party. The details of the mechanisms and the contents of the authentication exchanges are given in subsequent parts of ISO/IEC 9798.