A Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) is fundamental to establish a trustworthy and secure business environment by being able to verify and exchange data between multiple entities, that can be users, networks, applications or devices. The purpose of a PKI solution is to create a trusted environment for the connected entities. PKI works through the implementation of two technologies: digital certificates and cryptographic keys.
By issuing a digital certificate, the PKI creates the cryptographic link between the individual entity’s key pair and the entity itself. The most important task of the PKI is to create a chain of trust: in any connected environment, every entity of the environment can implicitly trust each other by explicitly trusting the root CA of the PKI. This chain of trust enables secure connection, communication and data exchange within the trusted PKI environment.
With the implementation of a PKI or Public Key Infrastructure, any organization can manage and administer the generation, issuance, revocation and validation of digital certificates.