When you use digital certificates in your organization, there are all sorts of terms used. You may hear terms like certificate authority, digital signatures, X509, and root certificate. Each of these terms is related, in one way or another, to digital certificates. Each term serves a specific purpose or function in creating a digital certificate or how a digital certificate works. If you are the person responsible for creating digital certificates for your organization, you should take time to learn more about each of these terms and exactly what they do.

An electronic signature on its own is not a secure signature. Anyone can modify, change, delete or forge the signature. There is also no way to authenticate the signature as being authentic. However, you can make this type of signature secure by converting it into a digital signature. A digital signature will require creating different digital certificates.

Issue Digital Certificates after Converting an Electronic Signature

Certification authority is the system used to generate digital certificates containing private and public keys. You can also use the system to create digital certificates which contain digital signatures. Digital certificates which contain digital signatures also require the use of both private and public keys. Users will need their own digital certificate with their private key for encrypting emails, files and other data they send electronically to other users. Users, who receive this information, will need their own digital certificate containing the matching public key.

A digital signatur is a type of electronic signature which is encrypted. It is important to understand the differences between using a digital and a basic electronic signature. Your basic electronic signature does not use any form of encryption. A good example of an electronic signature is the signature you use in your email messages. Anyone can change, modify or delete this type of electronic signature. For example, anyone could take and copy your email message into a new message, and re-sign the message, using their electronic signature.

Any of your network systems or online systems will require you to secure them to prevent unauthorized access. One common method used is making users enter in a user name and password when they attempt to access a secure area or resource. However, this method is not fully secure, so you may want a second layer of security. You can achieve this second layer of security by using two factor authentication.

One Method of Two Factor Authentication Uses Digital Certificates

A PKI certificate is a type of digital certificate which follows the basic requirements and standards used to create digital signatures. You will need a certificate authority system in order to generate digital certificates containing digital signatures. There are two types of certificates you will need to create for each user. You will need one certificate for the use, which should contain their digital signature as well as a private key. The other certificate you will need will contain the user’s public key.

How Does a PKI Certificate Work to Encrypt and Decrypt Digital Signatures?

There are different purposes for which you can use a digital certificate. You can use this type of certificate when you want to digitally sign documents and files and make sure they are secure. Without the proper certificate, the signed documents and files cannot be accessed. Digital signatures are suited for use on financial documents, proprietary data files and other types of information which need to be kept confidential.

A Digital Certificate Can Be Used as a Second Form of Authentication

Creating and issuing digital certificates will require using a certificate authority system. This type of system is able to create any type of digital certificate you require for your organization. You can use it to create digital certificates containing digital signatures, as well as creating both the public and private keys required. The private key is issued to the person, who will be digitally signing documents. The public key is issued to anyone who will need to authenticate and access digitally signed documents.

When using a certificate authority to create digital certificate, you can include an expiration date. The expiration date may be needed when you want to limit the time a digital certificate will be valid. For example, when you are working with a vendor on a proposal, you may only want them to use your digital certificate until the proposal has been approved.

You Can Revoke Digital Certificates with a Certificate Authority System

In this era, you need to ensure that every message, document or file that you send across the Internet is protected by the highest level of security available. In light of this, many companies are switching over to using public key cryptography as a major part of their overall security program. This type of cryptography is one part of the overall package and while the public key is used to encrypt the information, it requires the private key to decipher the encrypted information and restore it to a readable format.

Public Key Cryptography Sees Wide Use In Online Retail Sites