More organizations say they are issuing certificates to business partners and slightly more than two-thirds of organizations polled for the study were found to be using separate signing and encryption keys, a 20% rise against the situation back in 2002.
The status report stems from an annual audit of sentiment towards PKI carried out by the European Electronic Messaging Association, a group that includes businesses like AIB Bank, Cargill and Unilever, government bodies such as the European Commission and the UK Ministry of Defence, and a number of IT vendors including HP, MessageLabs, Siemens, and Utimaco.
Management attention for PKI has increased, the study suggests, with the number of organizations viewing PKI as a strategic requirement increasing from 74% to 92% during 2003. Of those organizations upgrading their own Certification Authority, most expect to move to the use of an external trust contractor. CA technology helps in the deployment of a PKI that will scale by automating and centralizing the management of cryptographic keys and digital certificates.
