ABSTRACT
When public key infrastructures (PKIs) hit the streets a few years ago, a media frenzy ensued — remember 1999, the year of the public key infrastructure? Now it is the morning after, and we have gotten a dose of reality when it comes to the cost and complexity of rolling out a PKI. But one thing remains constant: positive authentication is vital for doing business, regardless of whether you are express-mailing paper contracts and purchase orders or sending those documents electronically. A PKI offers a way to transmit data securely over insecure networks, extending user credentials across an enterprise or to extranet partners.
