With Public Key Infrastructures seemingly falling out of favour in the
industry we ask the question: Does PKI have a future? Our analysis
will be split in two. In the first section we concentrate on the
technology behind PKI. At the heart of current PKI offerings is the
certificate and we look at the different means by which certification
can be achieved, evolving infrastructures that do not use certificates
and how we see the technology surrounding their use evolving. In the
second section we look at the business issues driving the evolution of
PKI. We consider such factors as cost, liability and legislation. We
conclude our discussion by bringing together threads from both the
previous sections through an analysis of non-repudiation.