6.3 Explain the core concepts of Public Key Infrastructure

Public key cryptography is technically a subset of asymmetric cryptography. Furthermore, PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) is a framework for deploying asymmetric (or public key) cryptography, along with symmetric cryptography, hashing, and certificates, to obtain a real-world flexible and functional secure communications system. The following sections discuss various aspects of PKI and its subelements (rather than focusing only on public key cryptography).

Certificate authorities and digital certificates

Digital certificates serve a single purpose: proving the identity of a user or the source of an object. They don’t provide proof as to the reliability or quality of the object or service ...

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