PKI Solutions

What is a PKI or Public Key Infrastructure solution?

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.

Benefits of a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI)

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.

• Authentication: Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) provides the ability to authenticate device and user identities through a Certificate Authority who is responsible for issuing digital certificates and providing mechanisms to identify the relevant entity holding those digital certificates.
• Privacy: PKI is used to increase the privacy of messages. Messages can be encrypted to minimize the risk that they can be read in transit, or by anyone other than the intended recipient, thus preventing tampering.
• Integrity: Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) is a critical component of transaction security. It provides the recipient of a message with a mechanism to check whether the message is still the same as when it was sent.
• Non-repudiation: Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) provides a mechanism for signing electronic transactions in a similar way to signing a document.