CompTIA A+ Certification All-in-One Exam Guide

section describes methods for sharing and accessing shared content. The
chapter wraps with a look under the hood at security policies and User
Account Control.
1002
Authentication with Users and Groups
Security begins with a user account, a unique combination of a user name
and an associated password, stored in a database on your computer, that
grants the user access to the system. Although we normally assign a user
account to a human user, user accounts are also assigned to everything that
runs programs on your computer. For example, every Windows system has a
SYSTEM account that Windows uses when it runs programs. Two
mechanisms enable user account security: authentication and authorization.
Authentication is the process of identifying and granting access to some
user, usually a person, who is trying to access a system. In Windows,
authentication is most commonly handled by a password-protected user
account. The process of logging into a system is where the user types in an
active user name and password.
NOTE Authentication is the process of giving a user access to a system.
Authorization determines what an authenticated user can do to a system.
Once a user authenticates, he or she needs authorization: the process that
defines what resources an authenticated user may access and what he or she
may do with those resources. Authorization for Windows’ files and folders is
controlled by the NTFS file system, which assigns permissions to users and
groups. These permissions define exactly what users may do to a resource on
the system. Let’s start authentication with an overview of user accounts,
passwords, and groups, then look at configuring users and groups in
Windows.