Digital Certificate

Overview As the functionality and complexity of the Internet increases, software downloaded from the Web plays an increasingly important role in our interactions with online resources. Digital certificates ensure that a program is from a legitimate source and that it contains the specific data that it claims. Certificate authorities are companies that offer certification services that verify the identity of both the client and the server. These services employ both digital signature, and public key encryption methods. Many companies on the Web sell digital certificates. 

General Information Who can obtain a digital certificate? What is involved in purchasing and implementing a digital certificate? What technologies are employed in digital certification? These questions can be answered by visiting www.webopedia.com/TERM/d/digital_certificate.html. Here you can read the definition for “digital certificate”, as well as link to other sites with information about digital certificates. This Netscape.com page offers a concise tutorial about how a digital certificate works. For a more comprehensive tutorial on this subject, visit www.howstuffworks.com/question571.htm. 

Digital Certificate Resources Are you looking for additional information about digital certificates, such as tutorials or Web sites? If so, the following sites will help you. Visit Microsoft’s Product Support Services page for a tutorial, and links to other Web resources. Go to the American Bar Associaiton page at www.abanet.org  to read the article  “Digital Signature Guidelines Tutorial”  which is a free online tutorial. If you are looking specifically for information about ActiveX and digital certificates, then visit this MSDN.com Web page.

Digital Certificate Companies Various companies provide digital certificates for individuals and businesses. Most digital certificate providers follow the DSS (Digital Signature Standard) that is based on a public key encryption method known as DSA (Digital Signature Algorithm). This popular encryption and digital signature method is endorsed by many security professionals, as well as the U.S. government. Visit any of the following links to view digital certificate companies’ home pages. These pages include information about services and prices.

• www.globalsign.net/digital_certificate/objectsign/index.cfm
• www.thawte.com
• home.netscape.com/security/basics/getperscert.html
• interworx.info/iworx-cp/support/tutorials/siteworx/ssl.php
• www.verisign.com/products-services/security-services

Additional Links A glossary of security, privacy, and encryption terminology is available at www.superiorconsultant.com or www.digsigtrust.com. The Web page www.ppdonline.com/demos/changesecurity.htm offers valuable information about how to safely change the security settings on your Windows PC. Both this Microsoft Support page, and this Symantec.com page report the occurrence of someone acquiring a digital certificate which was erroneously signed by Microsoft.