Information Security: Public Key Infrastructure Essay -- Information

With the increase of digital communications and transactions, a stronger direct of security is required to protect the user and their entropy transactions. Systems, servers, personal computers, mobile devices, tokens and smart cards are all being used ubiquitously to enchant protected communications. With the influx of data management, there is an ever-apparent contest between the cardinal adversaries in the game of Information security the developers and the hackers. PKI was designed to leverage the lucre infrastructure for communications (CITE Samuelle 2009). While minimizing hostile exploitation of data, decreasing data theft, and providing an additional layer of trust through keys pairs and digital certificates, PKI is used to swear the identity of the user and the authenticity of the data. A Public Key pedestal is not a single device or entity it is a digest of technology, infrastructure, and practices that enables large scale use of public key cryptography to go away authenticity, confidentiality, integrity, and non-repudiation services (CITE). The word cryptography is derived from the Greek word kryptos(CITE), which means hidden. It is the technique in which a cryptographic algorithm is used to take the passe-partout plaintext information and then make it un exonerated to everyone except for those it was initially intend for by scrambling it into ciphertext. This is known as encryption, and the process that unscrambles the message to make it readable again is called decryption. The national Security Agency (NSA) even defines cryptography as the science and art of making codes and ciphers(CITE NSA 2009). In cryptography, a key or code is used to scramble the message which results in a cipher. cryptanalysis has not alw... ...rce. (2007, family 18). Public Key Infrastructures - Federal PKI. Retrieved Sept 15, 2009, from NIST-Computer Security Division http//csrc.nist.gov/groups/ST/crypto_apps_infra/pki/index.htmlNIST. (2009). Federal Infor mation Processing Standard (FIPS) Publication 186-3, digital Signature Standard (DSS). Washington, D.C. Department of Commerce.NSA. (2009, 01 12). Frequently Asked Questions Terms and Acronyms - NSA/CSS. Retrieved 10 11, 2009, from National Security Agency http//www.nsa.gov/about/faqs/terms_acronyms.shtmlUS-CERT. (2008, 12 31). Vulnerability Note VU836068. Retrieved 10 12, 2009, from US-CERT http//www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/836068VeriSign, Inc. (2009). National PKI The foundation of trust in government programs (A White Paper). Retrieved Sept 15, 2009, from VeriSign White Paper http//www.verisign.com/static/national-pki-government-trust.pdf