- Kerberos is a network authentication protocol developed at MIT in the 1980s that allows clients and servers to authenticate to each other in a secure manner. - It protects against intercepted credentials by using tickets and encrypted exchanges between clients, an authentication server, and application servers instead of sending passwords in clear text. - It assumes network connections rather than individual servers and workstations are the weak point, and designs authentication and authorization to be secure, encrypted and convenient for users.