Agencies must confront issues of user authentication, ensure the confidentiality and integrity of data transferred, and be accountable for providing required levels of security and privacy. For each key-pair, one key is kept private, and the other is made public. Public-key technology offers many important features. These include providing definite authentication of users over closed or open networks, ensuring the integrity of data transmitted over those networks, enabling the achievement of technical nonrepudiation for transactions, and allowing strong encryption of information for privacy, confidentiality or security purposes. Technical nonrepudiation binds a user to a transaction in a manner that provides important evidence in the event of a later dispute.
Encryption protects private information from discovery when transmitted, even over open networks.
Many agencies have realized that the services inherent in a PKI help them to address their critical security and privacy issues. As agencies implement their own PKIs, they are discovering the need to interoperate with other agencies and exchange information in a secure and reliable fashion. Unfortunately, interoperability among different PKI products is limited. Many federal chief information officers have recognized this situation and are participating in the development of a resource that would enable interoperability among different agencies PKIs. The Federal PKI Steering Committee, a subpanel of the interagency CIO Council s Enterprise Interoperability and Emerging Information Technology Committee, has been charged with the design, implementation, and operation of a Federal Bridge Certification Authority to act as a hub between agency-specific PKIs.