A PKI certificate is needed when you want to use a digital signature. You may hear PKI being referred to as public key infrastructure, when it is not abbreviated. This type of certificate can contain a public key or a private key. The type of key required depends on whether you are creating electronically signed documents, or receiving them for authentication.

An Electronic Signature Does Not Require a PKI Certificate

With more and more organizations moving to online hosted servers, you will want to make sure you use public key cryptography. With this type of cryptography, you can use a certificate authority to generate digital certificates. You can distribute digital certificates to your employees, who need access to your online servers. When they log into the online server, their digital certificate is authenticated against the digital certificate contained on the online server.

Public Key Cryptography Can Prevent Unauthorized Access

Using single sign on authentication requires numerous processes to be run in the background. After the user enters their user name and password, each application has to process and run an authentication process. Once every application has authenticated the user, they will have access to each application, without having to re-enter their user name and password. Using this type of authentication comes with security risks, because it allows access to multiple resources, without a second form of authentication.

A root certificate is a specific part of digital certificates. Without the root, you would not be able to authenticate the digital certificate. This is because the root contains the information needed to run the authentication process, and compare the public and private keys. As long as the two keys match, the document is decrypted and access is granted. If they do not match, the document will remain encrypted until the right digital certificate is used.

Complex Formulas Make Altering a Root Certificate Difficult

Certification authority refers to the system used to generate and create digital certificates. Without this type of system in place, you are not able to generate or create your own digital certificates. The reason you would want such a system, is when you want to limit access to a specific set of users and prevent unauthorized access. There are different methods available for requesting and distributing digital certificates to your employees.

A Certification Authority System Can Create Certificates with Private and Public Keys

There are all kinds of different ways in which your organization can become green- friendly. One popular choice many companies utilize is to eliminate as much paper use as possible. However, this presents the challenge of what to do when documents need to be signed. Initially, the simple solution was to just use an e signature. This type of signature is where the signer of the document simply types in their name and saves the file. You should be aware that this solution does not include any security measures.

Use a Digital Signature in Place of an E Signature to Verify Authentication

The thing to remember with RSA token solutions is that they are harder to implement in large work environments. This is because every single employee with computer access needs their own token key. Employees also have to be responsible to carry their USB tokens with them. They also have to remember to never leave them plugged into their computer when away from their desk.

You Can Use Digi-Cards in Place of a RSA Token Solution

In the past, people stored data and information either locally on their work computer, or on a network server. These items were blocked from outside access, so the only way to gain access was internally. However, with the internet and remote offices being established, people began connecting to work servers from all different locations. This presented a security issue, because of weak log-in requirements which could be easy to hack. One way organizations can fix this problem is by using two factor authentication.

A certificate authority is required when you want to create your own digital certificates. Why would you want to create your own digital certificates? Well, the most common reason is to increase security and protect proprietary data and information within your organization. For example, you could create digital certificates for your finance department employees, to add more security to the sharing of financial information.

Prevent Unwanted Access to Your Website by Using Your Own Certificate Authority

VPN is short for virtual private network. This type of network is used by employees who work remotely outside of their organization’s main office. They need a VPN to connect to network servers located behind a firewall, which otherwise would be inaccessible through a normal internet connection. A specific type of virtual private network is called a UK VPN connection. This type of VPN connection allows people who work for companies based in the United Kingdom the ability to access network servers from remote locations, both inside and outside of the UK.

How Does a UK VPN Connection Work?