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

Chapter 1. Introduction

This book is about understanding Public-Key Infrastructure (PKI). The first step in understanding involves the head: knowing the concepts; becoming familiar with the terminology; and getting a sense of the parameters, the scope, the limits of a topic. This enables us to become conversant with others about the issues, to be able to read and follow the literature with a perceptive, critical eye.

The second step in understanding involves the hands: We learn by doing. We see what technical work others have done (and are doing) to enable concrete implementation of the concepts, and we set to work implementing the concepts for ourselves in our own environments. This, too, allows us to converse with others and to evaluate the ...