With the increase in digital communications and transactions, a higher level of security is required to protect the user and their data transactions. Systems, servers, personal computers, mobile devices, tokens and smart cards are all used everywhere to view protected communications. With the influx of data management, there is an increasingly apparent competition between the two adversaries in the information security game: developers and hackers. PKI was designed to leverage the Internet infrastructure for communications (CITE Samuelle 2009). While minimizing hostile data exploitation, decreasing data theft, and providing an additional layer of trust through key pairs and digital certificates, PKI is used to verify user identity and authenticity of data. A public key infrastructure is not a single public key infrastructure. device or entity; it is a compilation of technologies, infrastructure and practices that enable large-scale use of public key cryptography to provide authenticity, confidentiality, integrity and non-repudiation services ( QUOTED). The word cryptography is derived from the Greek word “kryptos” (CITE), which means hidden. This is a technique in which a cryptographic algorithm is used to take the original plain text information and then make it unreadable to anyone except those for whom it was originally intended by scrambling it into text. figure. This is called encryption, and the process of deciphering the message to make it readable again is called decryption. The National Security Agency (NSA) even defines cryptography as the science and art of creating codes and ciphers (CITE NSA 2009). In cryptography, a key or code is used to scramble the message resulting in a cipher. Cryptography has not always...... middle of paper ......rce. (September 18, 2007). Public Key Infrastructures - Federal PKI. Retrieved September 15, 2009, from NIST Computer Security Division: http://csrc.nist.gov/groups/ST/crypto_apps_infra/pki/index.htmlNIST. (2009). Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) Publication 186-3, Digital Signature Standard (DSS). Washington, DC: Department of Commerce.NSA. (2009, 01 12). Frequently Asked Questions Terms and Acronyms - NSA/CSS:. Retrieved November 10, 2009 from the National Security Agency: http://www.nsa.gov/about/faqs/terms_acronyms.shtmlUS-CERT. (2008, 12 31). Vulnerability note VU#836068. Retrieved December 10, 2009, from US-CERT: http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/836068VeriSign, Inc. (2009). National PKI: The Foundation for Confidence in Government Programs (A White Paper). Retrieved September 15, 2009 from VeriSign White Paper: http://www.verisign.com/static/national-pki-government-trust.pdf