As more and more organizations move away from paper and find alternative electronic methods, signing documents will also need to be replaced with a viable solution. PKI can be used in different types of electronic environments to help eliminate paper. One common usage for this method is with digital signatures. This type of signature provides a secure method for signing and approving electronic documents, forms, files and other data types requiring a signature.
In a PKI digital signature environment, there are two types of electronic keys required. The first type is called a private key and held by the person, who will be attaching their signature to various electronic data types. The other type is called a public key, and is needed by anyone wanting to authenticate the signature. In order to verify authenticity, organizations often use a trusted third party to create these keys on their behalf.