Public Key Infrastructure (PKI)
What is Public Key Infrastructure (PKI)? Public key infrastructure (PKI) systems offer authentication in transactions. PKI is an information technology infrastructure that enables internet users to securely and privately exchange information through the use of a public and a private key pair that is obtained and shared through a trusted authority. The public key infrastructure provides for a digital certificate that can identify an individual or an organization and directory services that can store and, when necessary, revoke the certificates. A certificate is a digital document (i.e. a formatted file) that binds a public key to a person, application, or service. A trusted Certificate Authority (CA) creates the certificate and digitally signs it using the CA’s private key. Because of its role in creating certificates, the CA is the central component of the PKI. Using the CA’s public key, applications verify the issuing CA’s digital signature, and hence, the integrity Continue reading