Redirected from PKI
One example of a PKI software system is GPG (The GNU Privacy Guard). Another popular PKI implementation is PGP (Pretty Good Privacy).
In contrast to PGP and similar systems, which use self-signed certificates, most enterprise PKI systems rely on certificate chains to establish a party's identity, as it is certified by a "higher" authority. Eventually, this leads to the creation of certificate hierarchies. Much of the standardization in this area is done by the IETF PKIX[?] workgroup.
Enterprise PKI systems are often integrated with the enterprise directory, in which each employee's public key is stored, together with other personal details. Today's leading directory technology is LDAP and in fact, the standard certificate format (X.509[?]) stems from this use in the precursor to LDAP, the X.500 directory schema.
PKI has many uses, including:
Pointers to leading vendors? Why is PKI often considered a white elephant?
See also public key cryptography.
Search Encyclopedia
|
Featured Article
|