Key management is the management of cryptographic keys in a cryptosystem. This includes dealing with the generation, exchange, storage, use, and replacement of keys. It includes cryptographic protocol design, key servers, user procedures, and other relevant protocols.
Key management concerns keys at the user level, either between users or systems. This is in contrast to key scheduling; key scheduling typically refers to the internal handling of key material within the operation of a cipher.
Successful key management is critical to the security of a cryptosystem. In practice it is arguably the most difficult aspect of cryptography because it involves system policy, user training, organizational and departmental interactions, and coordination between all of these elements.
Read more about Key Management: Types of Keys, Key Exchange, Key Storage, Key Use, Public Key Infrastructure, Multicast Group Key Management, Challenges of Key Management, Types of Key Management Systems, Key Management Commercial Systems
Famous quotes containing the words key and/or management:
“All meanings, we know, depend on the key of interpretation.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)
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—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881)