Cryptographic Application Programming Interface is a Microsoft Windows platform-specific API included in Microsoft operating systems, offering developers a standard functionality for working with the Cryptographic Service Provider (CSP) software library. It provides support for public-key and symmetric key cryptography, encoding and decoding, digital certificates, and the CryptGenRandom secure pseudorandom number generator function. Implementations include secure email clients and strong user authentication services. It was first introduced with Windows NT 4.0, which was launched in 1996.
Server software creates an infrastructure with public-key encryption. The server can easily withstand hundreds of simultaneous connections. In the client-side application an accountant can save paper by typing out, signing and sending tax declarations from a laptop to the local tax office for inspection any time and from any place in the world.
2002–2024