Definition of Authentication and Authorization

Sometimes people are confused what Authentication and Authorization are and these two can eb mixed up together.

Read more on: http://www.acm.uiuc.edu/workshops/security/auth.html
An authentication system is how you identify yourself to the computer. The goal behind an authentication system is to verify that the user is actually who they say they are.

Authorization

Once the system knows who the user is through authentication, authorization is how the system decides what the user can do.