Page 423 - (ISC)² CISSP Certified Information Systems Security Professional Official Study Guide

cryptography and the public-key infrastructure (PKI) that supports
worldwide secure communication between parties that don’t

necessarily know each other prior to the communication. Asymmetric
algorithms provide convenient key exchange mechanisms and are
scalable to very large numbers of users, both challenges for users of
symmetric cryptosystems.

This chapter also explores several practical applications of asymmetric
cryptography: securing email, web communications, electronic

commerce, digital rights management, and networking. The chapter
concludes with an examination of a variety of attacks malicious
individuals might use to compromise weak cryptosystems.