Public key infrastructure: a micro and macro analysis

The Internet has increasingly been used for communication between people. Most users have no problem relaying messages, which do not contain confidential information, over a network. Yet, for it to be accepted as a medium of conducting monetary transactions there will need to be a higher degree of confidence in the technology’s reliability and security. No one will agree to send his or her financial information over the Internet if there is any doubt in the security of that medium. Likewise, companies involved in E-commerce must have a means to verify the customers using the Internet to order goods and services. Public Key Infrastructure, PKI, attempts to provide the answer to the reliability question, as a method of digital security. PKI provides the ability to verify the sender and the recipient of electronic messages, protecting against E-commerce fraud, corporate espionage, and the theft of intellectual property. D 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.