Making sense of PKI

The Public Key Infrastructure solves many security problems, but also introduces risks that require careful management.

The Public Key Infrastructure solves many security problems, but also introduces risks that require careful management. Nick Barron reports.

A basic knowledge of cryptology is important to understanding the Public Key Infrastructure (PKI). Cryptology is, in essence, the science of keeping secrets. The standard assumption of the designers of encryption systems is rather pessimistic. Not only is it assumed that the message has been intercepted, it is also assumed that the attacker knows exactly how the encryption works, and can even experiment with their own messages.

In fact, the only challenge facing the attacker is discovering the encryption key, and that is why the safe handling of keys is one of the hardest problems in cryptology (and business).

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