Introduction to Public Key Technology and the Federal PKI Infrastructure

Public key infrastructures (PKI) are an electronic means of doing historically paper based tasks. Discussion of whether federal agencies should use PKI after the Government Paperwork Elimination Act (GPEA) that requires an option to submit paperwork electronically and maintain electronic records. Through PKI, public key cryptography can be used on a large scale. Explains how PKI works (through Certification Authority to verify authentication), suggests supplementing traditional security with PKI.