High Assurance Sessions

High assurance sessions are designed to provide a heightened level of security and trust, ensuring that the data and transactions in sessions are protected from unauthorized access, tampering, and eavesdropping. High assurance sessions are often used in sectors such as finance, government, and healthcare, where sensitive information is routinely handled and the need for robust security measures is paramount.

One of the key features of high assurance sessions is the use of strong authentication methods. Unlike standard sessions that might rely on simple usernames and passwords, high assurance sessions employ more advanced techniques such as multifactor authentication (MFA), smart cards, biometric verification, and hardware tokens. The multi-layered approach significantly reduces the risk of unauthorized access, as an attacker would need to compromise multiple forms of identification simultaneously. For example, a user might need to provide a fingerprint scan, a one-time code sent to their mobile device, and a physical smart card to gain access to a high assurance session.

High assurance sessions also incorporate strict session management policies. These policies may include automatic session timeouts, which log users out after a period of inactivity, and session invalidation upon detection of suspicious activity. Additionally, session tokens are often generated and managed with high security standards, ensuring that they are unique, unpredictable, and expire after a short period. This helps prevent session hijacking and other forms of attack where an attacker might try to reuse or predict session tokens to gain unauthorized access.