Certificate authorities issue digital certificates to online businesses to guarantee their identification and secure personal information exchanged with customers. The trust in digital certificates depends on the certificate authority, and fees vary for individuals and businesses.
A certificate authority (CA) is a trusted third party that issues digital certificates, mostly to online businesses. The certificate authority guarantees the company’s identification as security for anyone exchanging personal information such as name, address, credit card, bank records, or medical records. All of this information is exchanged in encrypted form between the two parties, with the digital certificate serving as a trusted positive ID for the public.
Since it is easy for any thief with minimal skill to set up a website and impersonate a legitimate business in order to steal personal information from visitors, digital certificates have become a necessity. The certificate authority requests information from the requesting company such as name, address, telephone, physical data such as fax records, and the company’s public encryption key, which is used to encrypt all sensitive data collected from its customers. Other documents and personal interviews may also be required.
Once a web company has met the requirements, the certificate authority issues a digital certificate that binds the ID and public encryption key to the website’s secure server. When a customer connects to the secure server, the digital certificate issued by the certificate authority will be passed to the customer’s browser. The browser checks it to make sure it’s in order before accepting the encrypted session.
The trust placed in digital certificates is only as good as the certificate authority that issues them. For this reason, if the CA is not recognized, the browser will display a warning informing it. Newer certificate authorities that are not yet recognized may have their digital certificate signed by a more well-known CA. You may wonder why anyone would get a digital certificate from an unknown certificate authority. The answer for small businesses is probably affordability.
While digital certificates are most often issued to businesses or organizations, individuals can also obtain a digital certificate from a certificate authority. Some companies require it for employees who want conveniences like online union services. The digital certificate verifies the identity of the employee requesting personal services. Fees for digital certificates vary between certificate authorities, but in general, digital certificates issued to individuals are less expensive than those issued to businesses. Commonly, fees cover a period of one to three years, so they must be renewed to keep the certificate current.
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