Digital Certificates

Digital certificates are used to guarantee the ownership of some resource. The specific case we are looking at is the issuance of certificates for web sites.

When visiting a website, by default, the HTTP protocol is used for data exchange between client and server. This is problematic, as many websites require confidential information to be entered: for example, credentials or payment details. In these cases, HTTPS is used.

Certificates are used on HTTPS websites in order to identify the server: it is easy to duplicate a website and use a URL similar to the real one. However, in order to get a certificate, a certification authority must verify the identity of the client. This means a website certificate can show who the owner is, and this information can be trusted.

Certificates are issued by Certification Authorities (CAs) – for example, Verisign. For more detail, read here: Verisign is a global provider of domain name registry services and internet infrastructure – Verisign