Adaptive Authentication is one of the most powerful security controls available on the ServiceNow platform — giving you the ability to enforce contextual access policies based on IP address, device trust, user roles, group membership, and authentication method. This blog will help you get it right the first time. We'll break down the three policy contexts that make up the framework, explain when each one runs, and walk through the logic that governs how they evaluate requests — so you can configure your policies with confidence and avoid common pitfalls along the way.