|
|
| What
is a Certificate Authority? |
According
to PCWebopedia, an Certificate Authority
is: A trusted third-party organization or company that issues digital
certificates used to create digital signatures and public-private
key pairs. The role of the CA in this process is to guarantee that
the individual granted the unique certificate is, in fact, who he
or she claims to be. Usually, this means that the CA has an arrangement
with a financial institution, such as a credit card company, which
provides it with information to confirm an individual's claimed identity.
CAs are a critical component in data security and electronic commerce
because they guarantee that the two parties exchanging information
are really who they claim to be.
A CA manages and issues security credentials and public keys for data
encryption and authenticity. By using a Public Key Infastructor (PKI),
a CA can check out a requester's credentials before issuing a digital
certificate, and once the certificate is issued, a CA stores the public
key, the expiration date, and the requester's personal information.
CA are both used for making secure financial transactions across the
internet, along with protection of sensitive data, and authentication
to prove someone is actually who they say they are.
If you are unsure what Public Key Cryptography is, perhaps you should
check out the following links:
What
is PKI?
What
is a Digitial Certificate?
What
is RSA?
|
|