Patent attributes
Techniques are described herein for dynamically-tiered authentication, which allows the authentication tier (AT) associated with a session to be automatically downgraded based on the session satisfying one or more downgrade criteria. Automatically downgrading a session eliminates some authentication-based privileges for the session without eliminating all privileges for the session. A session satisfies downgrade criteria based on: an explicit request for session downgrading; client interaction with the application; and/or activity on the device on which the client runs. For example, if a client authenticates to a third AT, but only performs actions in the application that are associated with the first AT during a pre-defined amount of time, the AT associated with the session is automatically downgraded. The session is either downgraded from the third AT to the first AT, or downgraded in intervals until the current or more recently accessed tiers are consistent with the current AT of the session.
