Alice and Bob are setting up a VPN connection between their two offices. They decide to use IPsec for secure communication and start the process of establishing an Internet Key Exchange $($IKE$).$ During Phase I of their IKE negotiations, they opt for a method to authenticate each other. They choose to use digital certificates issued by a mutually trusted certificate authority.

Which of the following statements best explains why Alice and Bob decided to use digital certificates for authentication in Phase I of IKE negotiations?

answer

Digital certificates provide a way to authenticate without the need for a pre$-$shared key, reducing the risk of key compromise.

Digital certificates allow for anonymous authentication, which is faster than other methods.

Digital certificates enable them to use a lower encryption standard, speeding up the VPN connection.

Digital certificates are easier to configure than pre$-$shared keys and require no setup.

The correct answer is that digital certificates provide a way to authenticate without the need for a pre$-$shared key, reducing the risk of key compromise. Digital certificates are used in IKE negotiations for authentication because they offer a secure and scalable way to confirm the identity of the peers without the need to distribute a pre$-$shared key, which could be compromised if not handled securely$.$ Certificates issued by a trusted certificate authority help ensure that the identities of the peers can be verified securely and reliably.

Digital certificates do not facilitate anonymous authentication; they are used precisely because they can securely tie identities to the parties involved in the communication.

While digital certificates might seem more complex to set up initially due to the need for a certificate authority, they are preferred in scalable environments for their security benefits over pre$-$shared keys, which can be difficult to manage securely in large networks.

The choice of using digital certificates has no direct impact on the encryption standard used in the VPN connection. The purpose of digital certificates is to authenticate the identities of the parties, not to influence the encryption strength directly.