Introduction

Today, digital information has become crucial for businesses due to the rapid growth of digital technology. Almost every company and even small retail stores also accept electronic payments. Companies that are largely dependent on digital communication are facing data privacy-related challenges. 

For that reason, the demand for data security is growing rapidly, and public key infrastructure is one of the best techniques. Many people think that PKI is a complex technique, and it’s not useful for everyone. However, this is a common misconception, and you will clearly understand it in this article. Here you will learn what it is and how it is beneficial for businesses.  

Public Key Infrastrucuture (PKI)

It is a technique that uses digital certificates for identifying users, services, devices on a mass scale. It helps organizations to create, store, and distribute digital information securely. All digital communication is encrypted with the help of a public key and a private key. Now you might be thinking what a digital certificate, public key, and a private key are. Keep reading to understand everything in detail. 

Public Key

In a PKI system, the public key is a security key that is distributed to the public. For accessing the messages encrypted in the public key, a private key is required.

Private Key

The private key is required to decrypt the messages encrypted by a public key. The private key must match the public key. The private and public key ensures that the messages are only shared by the approved parties. 

Certificate Authority

Certificate Authority is one of the most important parts of a PKI system. It is used to manage all the aspects of a certificate. The CA is used for issuing certificates for verifying the user. It creates a certificate where the public key, private key, and all the information are printed. In simple terms, you can call it the trust authority between the sender and receiver through a pair of a public and private key. 

Hardware Security Module

Although an HSM is not mandatory for a PKI system, it improves the whole system. It is a device that stores cryptographic keys and manages all of them. It helps enterprises to build a secure PKI system.

Why is PKI Important? 

With the increasing number of businesses using digital technology, cybersecurity challenges have also increased. So the demand for PKI is also increasing rapidly. It is used in many different applications, such as the authentication of wi-fi, web application, email security, VPN, and more. However, here we will discuss these four topics. 

Wi-Fi Authentication

PKI helps the user to connect to a Wi-fi network with the help of issuing an EAP-TLS certificate. This certificate is issued by a trusted CA and authenticated by the server network. It helps the user to access the network seamlessly. 

Web Application Authentication

Similar to wi-fi authentication, the web application server also verifies the user with the help of a digital certificate. The certificate issued to the user is signed by a trusted CA. Therefore, the users don’t face any problem to gain access to the web application. 

Email Security

A digital certificate can also be used for encrypting emails. It uses a special protocol called S/MIME to create the certificate. The protocol ensures the authenticity of the users by verifying the certificate and decrypts the message.

VPN Authentication

Another great application of the PKI system is in a VPN. VPN is a great way to access critical information from the web server using a firewall. A secure tunnel is created once the user is verified with the certificate. 

Conclusion

Finally, I hope the above information has helped you to understand the basics of PKI. If you want to know more about it and its application, you can learn it online. You can join different online communities to get a deeper understanding of discussion with experts. If you have any queries, please ask in the comment section and don’t forget to share your opinion.