ITM 301 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Public-Key Cryptography, Verisign, Public Key Infrastructure
Document Summary
Itm 301 chapter 15: data is encrypted using two keys - private key (user knows) - public. Key ( anyone may request: a user"s public key can be obtained the old-fashioned way by asking that user or it can be obtained from a third-party source, such as a public key server. Public key server: publicly accessible host, freely provides list of users public keys. Asymmetric encryption: requires two different keys: one to encrypt one to decrypt. With the abundance of private and public keys, not to mention the number of places where each may be kept, users need easier key management: one answer to this problem is to use digital certificates. Digital certificates: small file which holds identification information, includes public key, a person or business can request a digital certificate. Ca (certificate authority): issues, maintains digital certificates: eg. verisign. Pki (public key infrastructure) use of certificate authorities to associate public keys with certain users.