What is a PKI Certificate?
What does the term PKI mean and what are PKI certificates?
Public key infrastructure, commonly known as PKI is a technology that helps internet users to engage in secure communications online. This also applies to secure money and data exchange. This technology authenticates users and the devices they use and communicate in the digital world. This technology, known as PKI, is an important component of cyberspace.
This framework ensures secure data transmissions between the users and the servers. It is the basis for two-factor authentication, code, email, and document signing, and HTTPS.
A public-key infrastructure (PKI) certificate is a kind of SSL certificate that uses the public key infrastructure technology to encrypt and authenticate the identities of the devices communicating over the internet. This kind of SSL certificate is used to create reliable connections.
How the PKI Infrastructure works?
PKI is a technology that lets you encrypt and sign data. Using this technology, you can issue digital certificates to authenticate the identities of the communicating users and devices. Not only can you create secure connections for web pages using PKI certificates, but you can also create secure connections for your internal WiFi, VPN, and other MFA-supported services.
PKI, the most commonly used encryption technology, involves a public key and a private key, where anyone with the public key can encrypt a message and only the person with the private key can decrypt the message. Apps, devices, and users can all use the public and private keys to encrypt and decrypt messages. Many organizations rely on this technology to encrypt data.
SSL certificates are the most common examples of PKI certificates. These SSL certificates give the website visitors the assurance that their data will be encrypted and that the information they transfer online will only be sent to the intended recipient and not to anyone else.
The following are the different types of PKI certificates.
- TLS/SSL certificates
- Code signing certificates
- IoT certificates
- Email signing certificates
- Personal authentication certificates
Wrapping Up
PKI certificates let internet users communicate securely online. PKI secures private data exchanged by different users on the internet. These certificates secure web pages, encrypt files, encrypt emails, and more. This way, these certificates create a safe and secure cyberworld.