Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) is a technology that authenticates users and devices in the digital world. The basic concept of the PKI is to have one or more general parties who sign the document certifying the crypto key that belongs to the individual users. These keys issued by the PKI network work like an ID card for the users in the digital network.

The users and the devices that have the keys are usually called entities. The entity is not limited to the users and devices; it can be anything. You can even consider the program manufacturer, process, and component. The purpose of the key is to provide a secure network for an entity.

PKI has several certification features. Among them is a Certificate authority (CA). This certificate is issued to the users after submitting the necessary documents to inn the signing process.

What Is PKI Used For?

PKI helps the users and electronics to have their own identity in the digital world. It is only possible with the help of strong authentication implications, data encryption, and decryption. The PKI allows the entities with the two-step key verification to access the physical and digital world. It allows users to communicate among themselves securely. Currently, PKI is one of the core technologies that is being used in web security.

What Makes Up PKI?

When we talk about a PKI, we are talking about the policies, hardware, software, distribution, validation, and recollection of the digital certificates. The core part of the PKI is the certificate authority (CA). It is trusted worldwide and ensures that the documents submitted for the verification belong to the owner.

What Are Digital Certificates?

A digital certificate is a file that contains all the valuable information of the keys, identifying information, serial number, and the expiration date. These files also include the signature of the authority certificate that validates all the documents. Digital certificates are the documents that prove yours and your document authenticity in the digital world. These certificates can only be accessed with the help of the keys generated at the time of verification.

What Are Public And Private Keys?

In the digital world, two types of keys are generated for the communication between the two entities. One is the public key, and the other one is the private key.

• Public key: The public key is the general key shared with the other parties for communication. The public is mostly used for sending messages or sharing information on the secured network.
• Private key: Private is known to the key owner. It helps the user to decrypt the messages and information shared by the other parties.

How Does PKI Facilitate Authentication?

When a user tries to communicate with the server, the server generates some random data and sends it over to the user. The user accepts the data and then encrypts it with its private key. Once the encryption is done, the user sends the data back to the server for the decryption. The server decrypts the data with the public in the user’s digital certificate. And if the decrypted data is the same as the sent data, the server knows that it is dealing with the authentic user.

How Does PKI Facilitate Encryption And Decryption?

When large amounts of data are involved in the encryption and decryption, symmetric cryptography is used, since asymmetric cryptography will be too slow to execute itself. Since the two keys are used in the communication between the two parties, the first key needs to be shared with the other parties. The process involved one of the parties generating the key and sending it to the other party for the communication. This whole process follows symmetric cryptography.

Conclusion

The public key Infrastructure has become a core part of the security technology. It is used to add and remove the encryption on the entities. It even provides two-step keys to secure communication between the users and servers. The implication of the PKI is limited to certain fields only. We can hope to see advancements in this technology.