Tech

PKI Training Essentials: Empowering Your Security Skills

Published

3 weeks ago

November 20, 2023

Did you know that without Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), internet users wouldn’t be enjoying the internet they enjoy today? Think about it this way: most legitimate websites use safe HTTPS, which uses PKI and some digital certificates to guarantee internet users’ security.

Understanding PKI and how it protects internet users is a wise decision for a student, a website administrator, or just a curious person. This piece explores the essential components of PKI that you should know about. So, read on.

Understanding PKI

In the modern world, companies rely on Public Key Infrastructure to keep their networks safe and guarantee internet users’ security. So, if you’re looking to adopt PKI, start with the relevant PKI training. Remember, PKI is one of the most common encryption many companies prefer today.

It is an encryption that an organization can use to encrypt a private key, a message, or a security key that only a trusted person should have access to. People use public keys to encrypt messages and use secret or private keys to decrypt these messages. These keys apply to devices and applications and can also be used by individuals.

Going back to the origins of PKI, the world witnessed the first PKI in the 1990s. During this formative stage, people used PKIs to manage the encryption keys by issuing and managing digital certificates. PKI digital certificates help one verify the owner of a particular private key.

PKIs also verify the authenticity of relationships between owners of private keys and help these people maintain utmost security. You would be right to compare a PKI to a passport or driver’s license, enabling you to access certain privileges.

Other than HTTP, SSL certificates are also examples of PKI certificates that websites use to help visitors be sure of who they’re sending information to. These PKIs also allow Internet users to verify digital signatures and other Internet of Things devices.

Now That You Understand What PKIs Are, Here’s How They Work

First, PKIs work as building blocks for the cryptography of public keys. As such, PKI users use cryptographic algorithms to encrypt and decrypt messages despite their mathematical complexities.

Secondly, PKIs assist internet users and security enthusiasts in doing symmetric encryption. Symmetric encryption helps people take plain texts through mathematical conversions to create an encryption. The logic here is simple–the encrypted message isn’t easy to break.

After all, the plain text in the message doesn’t come out in the encrypted message. For instance, if an encryption message has “hhh,” the message wouldn’t encrypt it with its three similar characters. Therefore, it becomes difficult for unwanted persons to try and figure out the security key.

PKI also works interestingly. You can only encrypt and decrypt using the same key. As for asymmetric encryptions, they solve an exchange program that users of symmetric encryption struggle with.

Asymmetric encryptions create two different security keys: public and private. While asymmetric encryption also uses mathematical permutations to develop security, the private key is usually only known to the message recipient. This makes this option safer than symmetric encryption, as compromising a single key won’t affect the entire system.

Consider this case scenario: you want to send a private message to Lynn. To ensure the safety of your message, you use Lynn’s public key to generate encryption for your transmission. As a result, only Lynn’s private key can decrypt the message you have encrypted. So, both of you win and reduce the chances of unwanted people reading your letter.

Below is the difference between private and public PKIs

Private and Public PKI

Once you’ve understood what a PKI is and how to use it, it’s time to act. However, at this stage, you will likely face the dilemma between the public and private PKIs. Interestingly, this dilemma forces many companies to adopt a hybrid approach, which also comes with challenges.

Here’s the thing: with both the public and private keys, it can be challenging to track how many digital certificates you have. Sometimes, you may not even tell whether they are compliant, and in some instances, you can forget where they are located. One would argue that this is false for individuals who practice best practices. It is accurate until you are too busy asking application owners to help you recover from past outages and renew your certificates.

Before this, the two-tier and three-tier hierarchies were dominant, and the IT teams had to agree on which security strategy to use. Luckily, changes and modernization have made it easier to deploy and manage PKIs. Today, you must decide which PKI to use for your organizational or business needs.

All the identical two-tier PKI deployments are more familiar with the three-tier architecture, only coming into the picture when an organization has a specific industrial or technical requirement. With modification, it is possible to store private keys and protect the CAs by implementing HSMs. This security measure ensures that attackers do not breach enterprise networks.

Final Thoughts

PKI comes with complexities, but it also comes with many benefits. After deploying a PKI, your organization can reduce its security maintenance costs. Efficient public critical infrastructure is at the core of a solid digital defense.

At the same time, you need to constantly educate yourself on emerging issues around PKIs as cybersecurity is evolving. As cybersecurity experts acquire essential knowledge and skills to deliver on PKI, you should also be equipping yourself to protect your data.

Tech

Here’s How Artificial Intelligence Transforms B2B Sales

Published

3 days ago

December 6, 2023

Maria Johnson

Artificial intelligence is taking over every aspect of business. This includes B2B sales and even B2B marketing. Basically, AI is one of the key modern technologies for B2B e-commerce. Unfortunately, many business owners do not actually understand the importance of artificial intelligence. This is why you should be aware of the ways in which AI transforms B2B sales. The big ones are highlighted below.

More Effective Lead Generation

Generating quality leads in B2B marketing is more complicated than in B2C. Your business needs to go through a much more labor-intensive process that includes data collection, management, and analysis.

The two most important parts of the process are data collection and data analysis. And artificial intelligence can help a lot. AI is capable of quickly analyzing huge amounts of data in a really short time frame, something a normal human cannot do. Algorithms can be set up to analyze based on specific important parameters. That analysis will then be perfect when it comes to making changes to generate more leads, especially when referring to the call to action you use.

Increased Engagement

You can offer incredible content but fail in your efforts because of improper publishing. AI will help your marketing efforts as it can offer the correct content at the best possible time and even in the appropriate manner for the highest possible engagement.

As an example, let’s think about your social media pages. Artificial intelligence can help determine the best time for publishing. The exact same thing can be determined for when you should send your B2B marketing emails. The behavior of your customers is monitored, so you do not have to worry about sending anything at the right time. AI does that for you.

Improved Website Functionality

B2B marketers often fail when it comes to analyzing website performance data. It is just very difficult to identify problems and areas where you can improve. AI-powered website analytics tools use machine learning and can get that done for you. In fact, modern tools even give you actionable insights and tell you what you can do to improve functionality.

Simplified SEO

Manual SEO optimization takes a lot of time. This is one of the biggest problems search engine specialists face. Artificial intelligence started to change that. They help identify the best content to focus on, make predictions for keyword rankings, and even discover competitive gaps you can use. AI can even optimize the old content on your website with link updates and dynamic keyword strategies. Even your old content becomes fresh again.

Obviously, we cannot use AI to create high-quality content yet. However, writers can still take advantage of it to optimize and enhance content based on SEO practices that actually work.

Conclusions

The 4 ways in which artificial intelligence impacts B2B sales highlighted above are just the really common ones. There are so many others we could mention. The bottom line is that you should never dismiss the use of AI tools since they are very valuable in the modern marketing world. Those who adapt will stay ahead of the competition.

Tech

The Skyscraper Link Building Technique

Published

3 days ago

December 6, 2023

Maria Johnson

At its very core, link building is simple. You just get as many high-quality backlinks as you can. The information you need to do this is available for free online. What is not free is what professionals do. For instance, link building for SEO agencies is quite different than for regular website owners with limited experience.

Several advanced link-building techniques can be used right now. One of them is the skyscraper tactic. We will discuss its basics below.

The Skyscraper Tactic

Original content is vital for good rankings. However, quality and quantity are just as equally important right now. A big focus for marketers is the creation of content that is simply better than what is available. This is what we mean when we mention the Skyscraper technique.

To keep things as simple as possible, you find the very best online content about the keywords you target, and then you create a much better version of that. Your focus is to create high-quality content people will naturally want to give a link to and even share.

Several tools can help you perform content analysis. This includes Google Searches, Quora, YouTube, and BuzzSumo.

Extra trick: Contact the websites where you found the content you improved to see if they want to link to your new, better article. Just always make sure that you focus on quality. This is true for what you create and for the backlinks that you collect.

Spying On The Competition

Take the Skyscraper tactic to a new level by seeing what backlink strategies competitors are using. You want to know where links come from and even what anchor texts are used. Tools like SpyFu can help you get this done very fast.

Remember that you do not have to copy what the competition does. Just use it as inspiration. As with the content creation part of the process, you want to improve this. You want to do a much better job than the competition does so that you can eventually pass it.

As an example, it is very easy to contact people and websites linking to the competition. Get in touch and offer better content. This drastically increases the possibility that you will receive good links that will help you rank.

Guestographics Creation

Simplify the skyscraper tactic and make advanced link-building work even better for you. Create that really good content and then create different versions of it. Focus on what people would want to link to or publish. For instance, infographics can always be really effective if you focus on evergreen content.

Let’s think about creating an article about the keto diet. You would use the associated keywords to look for the most shared online articles. The Skyscraper technique can then be used to create a good infographic based on the high-shared articles. You have similar content, but there is a unique appeal in place because of the new format you offer.

A very big advantage of this simple SEO hack is that you can then contact the sites that published the original content and have a good chance they will also publish your infographic. Just make sure that it is better in terms of the data included in it.

Tech

A Guide to Contract Sewing and Custom Manufacturing for Businesses

Published

4 days ago

December 5, 2023

Maria Johnson

Contract sewing is how most soft goods are made. A company selling soft goods will take an order and then outsource the job to a sewing and manufacturing company. The same is also true for custom manufacturing, though, of course, as it relates to the fact that any item can be made, not just soft goods. If you run a company but do not have your own manufacturing plant, you may be interested in hiring a company to produce products for you. This post plans to explore this topic and will offer a guide on working out such an arrangement for your business.

Unlimited Number of Products

The best thing about contract sewing and custom manufacturing is that there are usually no limitations as it relates to what you are able to make for your business. Go ahead and visit Fieldtex Products website, and you will witness this for yourself. There are lots of different options, and of course, manufacturers can create unique, one-off products for you as long as you specify what you want. If you do want custom products made, you need to make sure that you are clear about what you want. If your requests are not clear, manufacturers are not going to be able to help you. Something else to note is that a custom manufacturer will be able to alter products listed on their site just for you, putting your logo on them.

Saving Yourself Lots of Money

You can save yourself a lot of money by working with a contract sewing or custom manufacturing company. Of course, lots of business owners overlook the savings that they can make by partnering with these businesses. The reason that business owners can save themselves money is that they will not have to worry about manufacturing goods in-house.

Instead, they can leave everything to an outsourcing company, meaning they only have to pay the company’s fees and do not have to worry about buying machinery and industrial equipment and training employees to use new equipment. Outsourcing manufacturing companies are not, on the whole, cheap. However, their fees are nothing compared to the amount of money it would cost to create an in-house manufacturing plant. You will not have to worry about maintenance costs, either. Maintenance costs add up over time and can be immense.

Finding A Reliable Manufacturer

If contract manufacturing or working with a contract sewing company interests you, you need to make sure that you find a reliable manufacturer to work with. Until you find a reliable company to outsource jobs to, you are not going to be able to start saving money. A good way to make sure that a manufacturer is reliable and worth working with is to read reviews. A manufacturer’s reviews can tell you everything you need to know about them and make deciding whether or not to do business with them a much simpler decision for you to make.

Contract sewing and custom product manufacturing can be very beneficial for your business. All of the reasons above explain why. If you are interested in working with such a company, be sure to find a reliable one, as explored in the last section of this article.