Aspects of the subject matter described herein relate to authentication for a distributed secure content management system. In aspects, a request to access a resource available through the Internet is routed to a security component. The security component is one of a plurality of security components distributed throughout the Internet and responsible for authenticating entities associated with an enterprise. The security component determines an authentication protocol to use with the entity and then authenticates the entity. If the entity is authenticated, the entity is allowed to use a forward proxy.