What will be the role of X.509 certificate authorities in providing secure applications and services?
The main goal of PKI is leveraging key management across multiple applications. Stakeholders in areas benefiting from a PKI need common ground for deployment to shorten the payback period. With potential costs in the million dollar range and multiyear commitments necessary for both internal and external services, certificate authority products and services are not for those who have not paid attention to the potential benefits or the risks. With VPNs, enterprises justify PKI through telecommuting, remote access, linked LANs and applications on IP-based networks. Related to VPNs is secure access to Web and E-commerce servers. When certificates are used to enable consolidated sign-on, the number of passwords required can be reduced, improving usability, while maintaining security. Although certificates are associated with S/MIME for securing E-mail, the pretty good privacy (PGP) alternative can also use X.509 certificates. Server IDs support secure sockets layer (SSL) security and provid
