Basic security concepts related to user identity

Let us also quickly go through some core security concepts needed to user identity.

1. Authentication and Authorization - Authentication is the process of verifying a person's identity and granting him access to the application. Authorization is the process of granting him access to specific features of our application based on his permissions. 

2. Identity - The information about an entity accessing our application is that entity's identity. The entity here may be a user, an organization, another application or a device. Identity of a person may also be used to provide customizations that can improve user experience.

3. Identity Provider - An identity provider is an application or service that manages identities of users. An identity service generally has features such as sign-up, sign-in, forgot password, change password, verify user attributes such as email address, phone number etc., and support Multi Factor Authentication (MFA). 

4. Identity Broker - Identity Broker is a service that allows us to use other identity providers such as Amazon, Facebook, Google, Twitter etc. An Identity Broker provides an opportunity for people having account with other providers to access our application. Most broker services, including Cognito, also provides sync services between an external provider and our own user pool, and is very useful for mobile users.