Introduction to the Public Key Infrastructure for the Internet

The practical, results-focused PKI primer for every security developer and IT manager.

Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) and related standards give you powerful new ways to solve your toughest e-commerce and Internet security problems. Now there's a comprehensive PKI primer for both technical and nontechnical professionals. IBM security expert Messaoud Benantar delivers the in-depth guidance developers and managers need to make PKI work, including coverage of important related topics such as ASN.1 and PKCS. From start to finish, Benantar focuses on getting results—and on answering your most critical questions about PKI deployment, operation, and administration. Coverage includes:

• The fundamentals of secret and public key cryptography
• The challenge of key distribution, and the central role of public key assurance systems
• Using PKIX to build secure Internet systems
• Understanding the PKIX notational language, data encoding scheme, and topology
• Implementing effective PKI trust models
• Using LDAP as an Internet repository for PKIX
• Certificate validation, credentials management, and key rollover issues

Benantar's detailed real-world scenarios give developers, administrators, and decision-makers unprecedented insight for deploying effective PKI/PKIX systems. If you plan to use these breakthrough Internet security technologies, there's no better resource.

Table of Contents

Preface.
1. Secret Key Cryptography.
2.Secret Key Distribution and Management.
3. Public Key Cryptography.
4. Public Key Establishment-the PKIX Way.
5. X.509 Certificate and CRL Extensions.
6. Trust Establishment in PKIX.
7. PKIX Topology and Operational Protocols.
8. PKI Certificate and CRL Repositories.
9. PKI Credentials Management.
10. PKI-Based Security Applications.
References.
Index.