Assured Identity -The Feature that Every Product Should Have

Sound business practice requires knowing who you are dealing with. The reliable identification of each party in a network transaction is a prerequisite for safe, secure use of the network. Fortunately, the technology for reliable identification of individuals and companies on the network is highly advanced and reliable. PCtN uses the features of Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) technology for assured identification of the all the participants on the network. PKI is a mature commercial product. One such product is available from VeriSign PKI Services.

Before leaving this subject, it is worth pointing out that this section is guilty of oversimplification. There are situations in which we can and should employ an alias rather than a true identity. These situations can be handled by negotiation software, but we leave such considerations out of this overview.