Abstract: A system and method for authentication are described herein. An authentication request is received at a combiner proxy (350). The combiner proxy (350), is arranged to receive a user authentication request, receive one or more share values from one or more communications devices (330A, . . . ,330N) where each of the communications devices (330A, . . . 330N) stores at least one share value of a set of share values and determine if one or more share values that have been received from the communications devices (330A, . . . ,330N) meet a quantitative criteria. The combiner proxy (350) is arranged to authenticate the user if the received share values meet the quantitative criteria.

Abstract: Examples associated with distributed authentication are described. One example includes generating a paired public key and private key associated with a user. The private key is split into a set of shares, which are distributed to a set of devices associated with the user. A challenge is generated to authenticate the user to grant the user access to a resource upon receiving an authenticating response to the challenge. The challenge is distributed to members of the set of devices. Partial responses are received from members of the set of devices and combined into a group signature. The group signature serves as an authenticating response to the challenge when generated from partial responses received from a threshold number of members of the set of devices.