Understanding Pki: Concepts, Standards, and Deployment Considerations

By Carlisle Adams

Public-key infrastructure (PKI) is the foundation of the four major elements of digital security: authentication, integrity, confidentiality and non-repudiation. The idea of a public-key infrastructure has existed for a while, but the need for PKI has intensified as the Internet has expanded its reach into business, government, the legal system, the military and other areas that depend on secure communications. This text is both a guide for software engineers involved in PKI development and a readable resource for technical managers responsible for their organization's security policies and investments. It is a comprehensive primer to the latest in PKI technology and how it is used today. Taking a non-vendor-specific approach, it explains fundamental concepts, examines emerging standards and discusses deployment considerations and strategies that effect success. This second edition has been updated throughout to incorporate developments in the PKI field. Two new chapters have been added to address the use of PKI in the real world and to explore the technology's future. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0672323915
• ISBN13: 9780672323911
• Release Date: January 2003
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
• Length: 322 Pages
• Weight: 1.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.3" x 0.8" x 7.3"

Customer Reviews

Wonderful overview

This is an excellent summary and overview of a difficult topic. It simplifies and explains without removing important detail or obscuring unsolved problems. It's an excellent book for technical people new to PKI, or for manager/business types who need a deeper understanding of the technology. I bought extra copies to hand out at work to people who needed to know this stuff.

Excellent PKI reference

Pundits, the press, and other elements of the cognoscenti invariably attempt to make every year "the year of" something. For whatever else 2000 might be the year of, many technology periodicals have proclaimed it the year of public key infrastructure, or PKI. Didn't know that? Many people don't even understand the term, which is neither descriptive nor intuitive.In the physical world, trust is built through a complex web of...

comprehensive and still very readable: a must!

I'm giving courses on PKI. I was looking for a good reference for my students. Finally found one! I read it cover to cover: comprehensive, very easy to read, vendor-neutral (very important to me), not biaised: also gives you the pros and cons, issues with PKI. A must to read if interested in PKI.

Complete and succinct discussion of PKI

"Understanding Public-Key Infrastructure" is well written and is a terrific book. It is the most complete and succinct book available on the subject of PKI. Other books deal with various detailed aspects of Public-Key Infrastructure, but this particular book is the best available in forming a clear overall perspective of the subject area. A great book for managers or technical readers which are looking for good, solid...

Great PKI Project Manager's Guide/tutorial/overview

I gave this five stars for the breadth of coverage. I don't need yet another book on cryptography -- I already have a shelf full. Carlisle and Steve cover the PKI turf without getting unnecessarily bogged down in technical details. For example, they cover the functions and differences of ECDSA versus ECDH in about a paragraph. If you want to know how the algorithms work, read Applied Cryptography. This has a clear, concise,...