What is a standardized set of roles, policies, and procedures used to create, manage, distribute, use, store, and revoke digital certificates called?

The correct answer describes a framework essential for ensuring the security and integrity of digital communications. A public key infrastructure (PKI) involves a comprehensive system that includes hardware, software, policies, and standards associated with the creation, management, distribution, and revocation of digital certificates.

Digital certificates play a critical role in authentication by verifying the identity of entities and ensuring secure communications over networks. The PKI framework supports this by providing the necessary services such as certificate authorities (CAs) that issue certificates, registration authorities that verify requests for digital certificates, and methods for certificate revocation, which is crucial for maintaining trust in a security context.

This structured environment is vital for enabling secure transactions and communications, particularly over the internet, as it underpins the use of encryption protocols that rely on trusted certificates to protect sensitive data from unauthorized access or tampering.

In contrast, the other options represent different aspects of security and digital rights management. Cloud access security brokers focus more on enforcing security policies within cloud services, digital rights management pertains to protecting intellectual property and controlling access to digital content, and identity and access management primarily deals with user identities and access control mechanisms rather than the comprehensive lifecycle and management of digital certificates.