About PKIWorks
PKIWorks is a system for certificate authorities operated by CommScope PKI Center™ that supports the full lifecycle of key and certificate management. It is highly configurable to host new certificate authorities and to satisfy varying customer requirements in certificate profile and device ID management. Currently PKIWorks supports hundreds of customers, including device manufacturers and cable and telco operators, for securing their devices and communication.
Features
Key and certificate generation
PKIWorks generates standard X.509 digital certificates (version 3) and is capable of generating the RSA public/private key pair on behalf of customers (e.g., WiMAX) or accepting Certificate Signing Requests (PKCS#10) containing a customer generated RSA public key.
Certificate renewal
PKIWorks supports renewal of certificates, if desired, and provides email reminders to customers to renew their certificates before they expire. After the renewal process, a customer receives a new certificate with the same identity with extended lifetime. Specific certificate lifetimes and renewal notification policy are highly configurable and may vary per project.
Certificate revocation
PKIWorks supports revocation of certificates by the Certification Authority and provides online Certificate Revocation Lists, updated daily. Certificate revocation is necessary in cases such as when the private key for the certificate has been compromised and thus must no longer be used.
Large volume batch processing
For large volume device manufacturers who need a large number of keys and certificates, PKIWorks supports generation of a batch of keys and certificates using customer device ID. PKIWorks also supports automatically assigning IDs within a predefined range.
CRL publication
PKIWorks provides online Certificate Revocation Lists for users to download, as well as to any system performing a certificate revocation check over HTTP.
Advanced ID management
PKIWorks supports user specification of ID ranges from which IDs are automatically chosen for certificates, based on configurable ID assignment policies, such as next-available and ID skipping. This helps customers manage their ID space and guarantee ID uniqueness.
Two-factor user authentication
PKIWorks supports two-factor user authentication via cryptographic USB tokens provided by CommScope, for better security. Each user accessing PKIWorks must possess a cryptographic USB token (factor 1) and the password (factor 2) in order to use PKIWorks. The two factors of authentication include possession of the physical USB token and the knowledge of the token password to access it.
Encrypted deliverables
If a customer requests PKIWorks to generate RSA private keys in addition to the digital certificates, the RSA private keys are delivered to the customer securely encrypted using the cryptographic USB token issued by CommScope, thus providing two-factor protection for the RSA private keys.
Customizable key storage and deletion policy
PKIWorks will retain private keys generated for each customer based on a configurable policy. For example, if the customer wishes, all PKIWorks copies of the private keys will be deleted as soon as the customer confirms successful receipt and decryption of those private keys. And if the customer does not confirm receipt, PKIWorks can still delete the private keys after a configurable timeout period.
Contact Us For More Information
Get in touch to learn more about our services and how you can start using PKIWorks.