Key Management

Synonyms

Key life cycle management

Related Concepts

Cryptology; Cryptosystem; Public Key Infrastructure

Definition

Key management involves all the operations related to cryptographic keys, including key generation, distribution, storage, update, and cancellation.

Background

Cryptographic keys are used to encrypt/decrypt data or to create/verify digital signatures (Key). One of the biggest issues associated with cryptography is the secure distribution of these keys to the appropriate communicating parties. This is referred to as key distribution or key establishment. The life cycle associated with this keying material (i.e., the initialization, distribution, and cancellation of the keys) is referred to as key management. This article discusses key management, with particular emphasis on key distribution.

Theory

In order to understand key management, it is important to recall that there are two basic types of cryptography: (1) symmetric or secret key and (2) asymmetric or public key.

Symm...