A Public Key Infrastructure is a Cryptographic key and Certificate delivery system which makes possible secure financial electronic transactions and exchanges of sensitive information between relative strangers. A PKI will provide Privacy, Access control, Integrity, Authentication, and Non-repudiation support to information technology applications and electronic commerce transactions.

A PKI will:

• manage the generation and distribution of Public/Private Key pairs; and
• publish the Public Keys with the user's identification as "certificates" in open bulletin boards (i.e., X.500 Directory Services).

• Private Keys are kept secure;
• specific Public Keys are truly linked to specific Private Keys; and
• the party holding a Public/Private Key pair is who the party purports to be.