Exploring Digital Certificates
A certificate is essentially a digital document that is issued by a trusted authority (central, internal or local)which can then be used by others to validate a user’s identity. Central, trusted authorities such as VeriSign, Thawte or DigiCert are widely used on the Internet to ensure that software from Microsoft, for example, is really from Microsoft, and not a virus in disguise.
Certificates are used for multiple functions, such as the following:
• Secure email
• Web-based authentication
• IP Security (IPsec)
• Code signing
• Certification hierarchies
However, all of these functions amount to either encrypting data, as in the case of securing email or protecting web-based passwords and content, or digitally signing ...
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