What is Public-Key Infrastructure (PKI)?
The term “Public-key infrastructure” refers to a set of services that use the methods of public-key cryptography to provide security functions for an organization, a group of cooperating organizations, or the Internet as a whole. The basic security services are assurance of the identity of a sender of information, assurance of the integrity of information, and protection of information from disclosure to unauthorized persons. A certificate authority such as the UW Services CA is one component of a PKI.
