Information, Computer and Network Security Terms Glossary and Dictionary

In Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), the Registration Authority(RA) is the authority charged with recording or verifying some or all of the data required for the Certificate Authority to issue certificates and maintain CRLs. In many cases, the CA will undertake all of the RA functions itself; but where a CA operates over a wide geographical area, it may be administratively advisable to delegate some of the tasks to an RA. The delegated tasks might include personal authentication, token distribution, key generation, revocation and others -- leaving the CA to concentrate on its primary tasks of signing certificates and CRLs.

Related Terms

RA: Registration Authority