PKI (public-key infrastructure)
PKI refers to a set of security services for authentication, encryption and digital certificate management under which documents are encrypted with a private key and decrypted using a publicly available key accessible to the recipient via a network. PKI differs from private key technology, like Kerberos, in which a single key that is shared by the sender and receiver is used to encrypt and decrypt a message or document.
Additional resources
PKI: Build, buy or bust
Options abound for digital certificates, but so do security concerns and design headaches. Network World, 12/10/01.
Simplification, not XML, is the key to PKI success
Kobielus, 05/07/01.
Make sure your PKI is up to the task
Snyder, 04/16/01.
Topic: Security
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Comments:
PKI Infrastructure
by Murray Strankay
Your description of the PKI encryption process is backwards. If you use your private key to encrypt and public key to decrypt, then anyone can decrypt the message. It should read that a sender uses the recipient's public key to encrypt the message and the recipient uses their own private key to decrypt the message. The public keys are freely circulated but not the private key.
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