What is a root certification authority (RCA)?
Digital certificates can only be an effective enabler of trade when all parties to a transaction have confidence in the certification authorities that issued the digital certificate. Trade is conducted globally and there will be times where a relying party will not be familiar with a certification authority and therefore may not feel confident in relying on a digital certificate they have issued. To overcome this issue, certification authorities may be certified by a higher level certification authority that is more widely known and trusted. This is known as a trust hierarchy and at the top of a hierarchy is the Root certification authority, sometimes also referred to as a trust anchor. The IdenTrust scheme is an example of a trust hierarchy. The IdenTrust organisation acts as a RCA and uses its own-signed digital certificate to certify the digital certificate of a participating financial institution, which acts as certification authority. By doing this IdenTrust™ also states that they
