Cryptographic Service Provider

High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! In Microsoft Windows, a Cryptographic Service Provider is a software library that implements the Cryptographic System Programming Interface. CSPs implement encoding and decoding functions, which computer application programs may use, for example, to implement strong user authentication or for secure email. CSPs are independent modules that can be used by different applications. A user program calls CryptoAPI functions and these are redirected to CSPs functions. Since CSPs are responsible for implementing cryptographic algorithms and standards, applications do not need to be concerned about security details.