What are Deterministic and Probabilistic Authenticators
May 30, 2022
Alarmingly we are witnessing that not a few security people are talking authentication factors without giving due attention to the fundamental difference between ‘deterministic’ and ‘probabilistic’ authenticators.
We need to make it very clear — “Yes/No’ on feeding correct passwords and ‘Yes/No’ on presenting correct tokens are ‘deterministic’, whereas biometrics which measures unpredictably variable body features of living animals in changing environments is ‘probabilistic’.”
For more on the issues of authenticators, you could refer to “What We Know for Certain about Authentication Factors” https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-we-know-certain-authentication-factors-hitoshi-kokumai/
