Definition: A Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) is a combination of policies, procedures and technologies to issue, maintain and revoke digital certificates in public key encryption.
Public Key Infrastructure explained
A PKI infrastructure issues and manages digital, cryptographically secure credentials. This enables electronic transactions to take place by proving the integrity of the transaction and increasing trust. PKI is a core component of data confidentiality, information integrity, authentication and data access control.
A digital certificate is an electronic data structure that binds an entity to its public key. This could be a person, a computer program, a web server, an organization, devices and all internet-connected ‘things’ (IoT). They are used for identity verification and secure communications, using public key cryptography and digital signatures. The purpose of a PKI is essential in building a trusted and secure business environment by being able to authenticate and exchange data between various servers, users, services and devices.
Certificate Authorities provide the foundation for the security of PKI and the services that it supports.
