Information Security Management, 2nd Edition

10.3 Asymmetric Cryptography

Public key cryptography, also known as asymmetric, is important for widely distributed secure transactions. It enables businesses to conduct e-commerce using trusted messages. The infrastructure used to support asymmetric key cryptography is called PKI for public key infrastructure and includes (1) certificate authorities who dispense trusted verifications such as X.509 certificates; (2) registration authorities who “log” or register their certificates with a certificate authority; (3) certificate servers that issue digital certificates; (4) certificate revocation that distributes notifications of revoked, expired, or forged certificates; and (5) key recovery services that allow administrators to recover lost keys. ...