Using Certificates with Encryption

One of the biggest problems surrounding the use of public-key encryption algorithms is being able to verify that the public key you received is really from the person you want to send a secure message to. You need a method of verifying that the key is from the person you think it's from, and that it hasn't been modified or tampered with. This is the problem that digital certificates have been designed to solve.

A digital certificate packages a person's public key with a set of credentials to vouch for the person's identity. The entire package is digitally signed by a Certificate Authority (CA) to vouch for the identity of the owner of the certificate. The certificate also contains the Certi-ficate Authority's ...

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