Glossary Item Box

Government Gateway 2.2.0 (MR-01) ISV Developer Help (Doc Version 06/03/08) | Send comments on this topic.

# Managing Authentication Types

# What Aspect of Authentication types need to be Managed?

The Government Gateway complies with the UK Government document Registration and Authentication: e-Government Strategy Framework Policy and Guidelines (tScheme is a practical implementation) which defines 4 levels of authentication protection (0 to 3). The Government Gateway implementation has introduced an additional level; level 1.5. The authentication types currently supported by the Gateway and associated authentication levels are as follows:

Authentication Type | Authentication Level
--- | ---
User ID/password | 1
User ID/password + Security Phrase | 1.5
Digital Certificate | 0,1,2,3

Through the SOAP Portal Interface there are a variety of methods to:

- Recover a user's ID (returned either by post or online).
- Change a user's password (online) or reset it if they have forgotten it (returned either by post or online).
- Add a security phrase to a users's ID/Password authentication credential (or change it).
- Add additional authentication types to a use – a user can have a 1 User ID/password authentication credential and multiple certificate type authentication credentials. For example a user with User ID/password (i.e authentication level 1) may need a certificate to access a service(s) that requires a minimum authentication level of 2.

Note:

- Three unsuccessful attempts to reset a user's password or recover their User ID will prevent further attempts for 2 hours.
- A user can only requested ether a password reset (sent by post) or their User ID (sent by post) once in a 3 day period.

Information on assigning an authentication type at registration is covered in the Registration section.

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