---
id: "papers-pac-theorem-keri-zero-trust-data-management"
type: "talk"
type_label: "Talks and presentations"
title: "PAC Theorem: Privacy, Authenticity, Confidentiality. KERI and Zero Trust Data Management"
maintainer: "Samuel M. Smith"
authors:
  - "{'name': 'Samuel M. Smith'}"
date: "2021-04-23"
year: 2021
reading_level: "practitioner"
reading_level_label: "Practitioner"
reading_level_meaning: "architects, product people and adopters who know identity systems"
evidence: "informative"
evidence_meaning: "an author's paper, deck, tutorial or post explaining the suite"
status: "quiet"
status_meaning: "no change in six to eighteen months; still correct"
access: "public"
access_meaning: "anyone with the link"
topics:
  - "theory"
  - "cryptography"
roles:
  - "developer"
  - "security-architect"
  - "communications"
  - "researcher"
source_url: "https://github.com/SmithSamuelM/Papers/blob/master/presentations/KERI_PAC_Theorem.pdf"
source_license: null
source_license_note: null
found_on: "smith-papers"
kerisse_credit: false
abstract_license: "CC BY 4.0"
abstract_license_url: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
abstract_attribution: "KSKB, the KERISuite Knowledge Base (https://kskb.dev/)"
last_checked: "2026-10-15"
kskb_url: "https://kskb.dev/cards/papers-pac-theorem-keri-zero-trust-data-management/"
kskb_app_url: "https://kskb.dev/#item/papers-pac-theorem-keri-zero-trust-data-management"
kskb_record_url: "https://kskb.dev/data/kskb/resources/papers-pac-theorem-keri-zero-trust-data-management"
kskb_markdown_url: "https://kskb.dev/export/cards/papers-pac-theorem-keri-zero-trust-data-management.md"
---

# PAC Theorem: Privacy, Authenticity, Confidentiality. KERI and Zero Trust Data Management

A 228-slide deck by Samuel M. Smith, marked version 2.60 and dated 2021/04/23, that states the PAC (privacy, authenticity, confidentiality) theorem and uses it to frame zero-trust data management with KERI (Key Event Receipt Infrastructure). Most of the deck is reference material on KERI identifiers, delegation, witnessing, security and the CESR encoding. For practitioners and implementers.

Labels: reading level Practitioner; evidence informative (an author's paper, deck, tutorial or post explaining the suite).
Source: https://github.com/SmithSamuelM/Papers/blob/master/presentations/KERI_PAC_Theorem.pdf (license not recorded).
The abstract is KSKB's own text under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/; credit KSKB, the KERISuite Knowledge Base (https://kskb.dev/).