Common issues in PKI implementations - climbing the 'Slope of Enlightenment'

This paper is an attempt to go beyond the many conceptual papers published about Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) and look at the actual problems experienced when implementing it. In particular, it looks at issues connected with the design and roll-out of large scale, identity PKIs. The issues chosen and the examples used have been sourced from real-life experience, as well as from public records of two current large-scale implementations of Identity cards incorporating PKI: The Common Access Card currently being rolled out to United States Department of Defense staff and the Estonian ID card.