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Private key infrastructure (PKI)

nounid 3667·updated May 9, 2026
candidate

The use of public key cryptography in which each customer has a key pair (e.g., a unique electronic value called a public key and a mathematically-related private key). The private key is used to encrypt (sign) a message that can only be decrypted by the cor-responding public key or to decrypt a message previously encrypted with the public key. The public key is used to decrypt a message previously encrypted (signed) using an individual's private key or to encrypt a message so that it can only be decrypted (read) using the intended recipient's private key.

MWE

Classifications

Entity Type

Credential90%rule-basedr:entity.credential.cert.v1

Sensitivity

unclassified

Information Class

unclassified

Variants

plural
Private key infrastructure (PKI)S
possessive
Private key infrastructure (PKI)'s
pluralpossessive
Private key infrastructure (PKI)S'

Framework definitions

Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) IT Examination Handbook Infobase, Glossary1 senseview framework →
§1
The use of public key cryptography in which each customer has a key pair (e.g., a unique electronic value called a public key and a mathematically-related private key). The private key is used to encrypt (sign) a message that can only be decrypted by the cor-responding public key or to decrypt a message previously encrypted with the public key. The public key is used to decrypt a message previously encrypted (signed) using an individual's private key or to encrypt a message so that it can only be decrypted (read) using the intended recipient's private key.

Outgoing relationships

No outgoing triples
This term is not the subject of any RDF-style relationship yet.

Incoming relationships

No incoming triples
No other term currently asserts a relationship to this one.