What is PKI?

Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) is about building a framework for issuing trusted digital identities to parties, such as users, servers or things. The PKI framework is governed by a set of policies and procedures which define the level of security that should be achieved.

PKI typically includes a combination of software and hardware components that together implement functions for Certificate Authorities, Registration Authorities and Validation Authorities that are responsible for issuing and lifecycle manage trusted identities for users, servers and things.

The world relies heavily on PKI. Governments, startups, and enterprises - along with their citizens and customers - are at risk if data is not properly protected. PKI is the backbone of most IT security solutions today.