Digital Certificates â Reading Assignment
1. What is a digital certificate?
A digital certificate, also known as a public key certificate, is used to cryptographically link ownership of a public key with the entity that owns it. Digital certificates are for sharing public keys to be used for encryption and authentication.
2. What is the difference between a digital certificate and a public key?
Public key cryptography depends on key pairs: one a private key to be held by the owner and used for signing and decrypting, and one a public key that can be used for encryption of data sent to the public key owner or authentication of the certificate holderâs signed data. The digital certificate enables entities to share their public key in a way that can be authenticated. (techtarget.com)
3. What is the most common use case for digital certificates?
To provide assurance that published content has not been modified by any unauthorized actors, and to share keys for encrypting and decrypting web content.
4. What is certificate authority?
The vast majority of digital certificates are issued by a certificate authority (CA). CAs are considered trusted third parties.