What is a digital certificate?
A digital certificate verifies that the person sending a message is who he, or she claims to be, and it provides the receiver the means to encode a reply. To provide additional security, Business Internet Banking uses digital certificates to help authenticate users. The digital certificate is downloaded as part of the registration process.
A digital certificate is an electronic “passport” that authenticates a web site when doing business or other transactions on the Web. It is issued by a certification authority (such as Entrust and Verisign). It contains, amongst other things, the name, a serial number, expiration dates and the digital signature of the certification authority, so that a recipient can verify that the certificate is genuine. You can verify a digital certificate by clicking (or double-clicking) on the closed padlock that comes up at the bottom of the browser when doing business with a secure web site.
A digital certificate is like an electronic version of a Passport or and Identity Card. It is used to positively identify a person or organization and establish their credentials when conducting transactions on the Internet. A digital certificate is an electronic file that contains personal information about its owner, such as name and email address, as well as this owner’s public key. A Certificate Authority (CA) issues digital certificates. The CA verifies identity prior to issuing a certificate. In this way the CA can then vouch for the identity of the certificate owner. The CA signs the certificates it creates. This enables users to know what CA created each certificate. The signature also ensures that the certificate has not been altered by a third party. Once you install a digital certificate on your computer, your computer now has its own private key and matching public key. You may provide your public key freely to whomever you wish, but the private key is confidential and your
A digital certificate contains the name of the entity that is being identified, the entity’s public key, the name of the issuer, and other information such as validity dates and the cryptographic data that proves that the certificate is authentic. Your browser lets you view the certificates that it has stored.
