A Certificate Authority is a vital component in the Public Key Infrastructure. The major component of a Public Key Infrastructure include obtaining a public key, having a Digital Certificate, a Registration Authority, a directory, and a certificate management system.
A Certificate Authority is an important aspect in the infrastructure because they are the providers that issue the digital certificate.
The Certificate Authority is the trusted third party that establishes that the digital certificate is valid and that the company’s information and data is legitimate. There are a number of different Certificate Authorities.
There are commercial companies that provide this service for a fee. Governments and organizational institutions may have their own Certificate Authorities. In addition, there are some Certificate Authorities that offer their services free of charge.
It is the job of the Certificate Authority to ensure that the information in the Digital Certificate is authentic. The Certificate Authority has this information verified by a Registration Authority before they can approve the digital certificate. It is also very common for a digital certificate to hold the public key information or digital signature of the Certificate Authority.
This ensures that if recipients with different Certificate Authorities can verify that a legitimate CA issued the certificate.
There are various state and local laws that govern digital signatures thereby there are a number of different Certificate Authorities worldwide. Yet when it comes to providing Certificate Authorities for the Internet, most authorities use SSL certificates.
There are a number of large companies that are Certificate Authorities that work on a global scale.
These companies include Netcraft, VeriSign, Go Daddy, Comodo, and Entrust. Netcraft is based in
They also provide many other free services including firewall, anti virus, and fee security services for your email. Go Daddy was founded by Bob Parsons in 1997. Go Daddy is most widely known for their low cost domain names and website hosting. In addition, they also offer low cost SSL certificates for those who want to ensure that their customer’s information is safeguarded with the utmost security.
Entrust is a very large Certificate Authority that the government uses. They are credited with being the first PKI for the public, unveiling their services in 1994. One of the advantages that Entrust provides is that they are a full service PKI.
This means that you can use them to handle your Certificate Authority needs as well as all of your Public Key Infrastructure services. Since public keys and digital certificates expire, using a Certificate Authority that can handle these situations for you offers many benefits.
There is another company that offers public certificates, CAcert. CAcert offers public key certificates for free. Their goals are to provide a trust mechanism that enhances the level of encryption found in both emails and web applications.