# Identity Assurance Identity assurance is the evidence-backed confidence that an actor, account, device, or message source is the entity it claims to be and is authorized for the action performed. It combines enrollment, authentication, authorization, provenance, monitoring, and recovery. In communication systems, identity assurance protects against impersonation, unauthorized publication, false sponsorship, and corrupted recovery. Authentication alone is insufficient when authority, account custody, or source provenance remains unclear. Related: [[wiki/Channel Custody|Channel Custody]], [[wiki/Channel Integrity|Channel Integrity]], [[wiki/Authority–Identity Separation|Authority–Identity Separation]], [[wiki/Provenance|Provenance]].