What is a Certification Authority (CA)?
When VeriSign issues an SSL Certificate, we act as a Certificate Authority (CA). VeriSign digitally signs each certificate we issue. Each browser contains a list of CAs to be trusted. When the SSL handshake occurs, the browser verifies that the server certificate was issued by a trusted CA. If the CA is not trusted, a warning will appear. When high-security browsers recognise an Extended Validation SSL Certificate, they sometimes display the name of the CA as well as the name of the Certificate owner. Because VeriSign is the most trusted and recognised CA on the Internet (see VeriSign Secured Seal Research Review (PDF)), the presence of the VeriSign name can lend an additional level of trust for site visitors. The VeriSign Trial Root CA is for testing purposes only and is not registered in any browser’s trust list.
