Public key infrastructure (PKI), which was supposed to use public-key cryptography to set up a worldwide network of bodies authenticating digital signatures and certificates, has failed to take off because it is too complicated. According to experts speaking at the RSA security conference in Paris, PKIs are simply more challenging than users were ready for, and key initiatives had failed to drive it into use. "There are barriers of cost to PKI," said Craig Mundie, chief technology officer of Microsoft. "In general it will end up viewed as a heavyweight mechanism, compared to lower value mechanisms." He likened the requirement to that for multiple locks, from luggage locks to bank vaults.
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