Public-Key Infrastructure Defined

Having gained an understanding of public-key cryptography in the previous chapter and an understanding of an infrastructure in this chapter, we are now ready to contemplate the notion of a public-key infrastructure (PKI). The seed idea, of course, is very simple:

A PKI is a pervasive security infrastructure whose services are implemented and delivered using public-key concepts and techniques.

Exploring this rudimentary definition further (that is, thinking about it in terms of practical operational consequences) leads to a slightly broader and more realistic definition, whose many parts we discuss briefly here and more fully in the following chapters.

Certification Authority

The fundamental premise ...

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