The Authentication Services provide functionality to verify that a claimed identity is genuine and based on valid credentials. Authentication typically leads to a mutually shared level of assurance by the relying parties in the identity. Authentication may occur through a variety of mechanisms including challenge/response, time-based code sequences, biometric comparison, PKI or other techniques. The Authentication Services provide also functionality required to manage trust relationships between organizations and/or within an organization to enable access to electronic assets across boundaries of entity's governance realms and/or information domains.