Various means of identification (5)
I believe the answer is:
names
'identification' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'various means' is the wordplay.
'various' indicates an anagram.
'means' with letters rearranged gives 'NAMES'.
'of' is the link.
(Other definitions for names that I've seen before include "Paul, Pat, John" , "Heroes" , "Appellations or identifiers" , "Some people drop these to sound important" , "identification" .)