The word is "authentification" after years of hearing it and seeing it I am gonna finally bitch about it! I am guilty of using non-words and typos... but I am just typing to type. Not building the interface for webmail (see image above) or writing technical documents.
Saying words correctly when they need to be is important. True story:
I had pneumonia in my teens and had to be hospitalized for it. I was in the ER for several hours before I was stable enough to be put in a room. When I was situated in my room, I asked the nurse, "Can you tell me which direction my window is facing, I am very disoriented." The nurse, very excitedly thanked me for the proper use of the word. She explained, "There are so many times I hear people say 'disorientated' and I want to correct them but I do not. It's one of those little pet peeves of mine, I am very impressed that you were able to use the right word."
So seeing authentification makes me think of disorientated.... Look: go here http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/ now type in 'authentification' it automatically redirects you to 'authentication'
I found this at http://dag.wieers.com/blog/authentification-does-not-exist : Authentification does not exist... Submitted by dag on Wed, 2008/12/31 - 04:39 One thing that really disturbs me in professional documents is the use of authentification (or in Dutch: authentificatie). This word does not exist in English or in Dutch, it is a mix up of authentication and identification, but still this mistake is made all over the IT world in Europe. Although the rule is very easy: when the verb is to authenticate it becomes authentication when the verb is to identify/to certify it becomes identification/certification The verb to authentify or to authentificate simply do not exist in English.... So don't use it :-)Authentification does not exist... Submitted by dag on Wed, 2008/12/31 - 04:39 One thing that really disturbs me in professional documents is the use of authentification (or in Dutch: authentificatie). This word does not exist in English or in Dutch, it is a mix up of authentication and identification, but still this mistake is made all over the IT world in Europe. Although the rule is very easy: when the verb is to authenticate it becomes authentication when the verb is to identify/to certify it becomes identification/certification The verb to authentify or to authentificate simply do not exist in English.... So don't use it :-)
Okay... end rant. Just had to get that off my chest..... to make matters worse a co-worker even said that authentification is a word... till I showed him it's not. It's a bastardization of authentication..... anyways that's that.