Understanding Public-Key Infrastructure: Concepts, Standards, and Deployment Considerations

Introduction

Introduction

Without a doubt, the promise of public-key infrastructure (PKI) technology has attracted a significant amount of attention in the last few years. Virtually every day some facet of PKI addressed in a newspaper, trade journal, or a conference paper. We hear and read about the promise of authentication and non-repudiation services provided through the use of digital signature techniques, and about confidentiality and key management services based on a combination of symmetric and asymmetric cryptography—all facilitated through the realization of a supporting technology referred to as PKI. In fact, many people consider the introduction of PKI technology to be the very enabler of secure global electronic commerce.

Although ...