Digital Certificates and Their Structures are Based on X509 Standards

X509 refers to the standard used to create digital certificates and their related structures. The layout and design of each certificate following this standard is often identical. This means, if you were to examine the contents of multiple certificates, you would find the creation date, issuer, serial number, version number and other details, all in the same location. There can be some slight variations in what sort of information is contained within the certificate. In certain situations, some organizations may customize their certificates and include optional information. However, it is common for companies to use a unique version number to make it easier to distinguish differences between certificates.

Certificate Authority Systems Use X509 Certificate Standards to Create Digital Certificates

Certificate authority systems are designed to create digital certificates following the current X509 standards. During the certificate creation process, there will be some information you need to supply which is incorporated directly into the certificate structure. For instance, the validity dates are one such detail that needs to be included in your digital certificates. You should be prompted to enter a date where the certificate is not valid, before this time, and enter a second date where the certificate expires once it reaches this date. Other details you include do depend upon how the certificate is going to be used. In cases where you are creating certificates with a digital signature, the signature information has to be included. Otherwise, the certificate is unable to be used to attach the digital signature to documents, data and other file types.