ABSTRACT
To mitigate the security risks of conducting business in an open environment while at the same time maintaining the cost advantages of doing so, enterprises are turning their attention to an emerging segment of the security market known as public key infrastructure (PKI). The purpose of PKI is to provide an environment that addresses today’s business, legal, network, and security demands for trust and confidentiality in data transmission and storage. PKI accomplishes these goals for an enterprise through policy and technology components. These components determine and identify the roles, responsibilities, constraints, range of use, and services available. This introductory chapter identifies the key concepts and issues surrounding the technologies and policies required to implement and support an enterprise PKI.
