Digital Certificates

ALSO CALLED: Public Key Certificates, Digi Cert, Digicert, Certificates, Digital IDs
DEFINITION: A public key certificate is a digitally signed document that serves to validate the sender's authorization and name. The document consists of a specially formatted block of data that contains the name of the certificate holder (which may be either a user or a system name) and the holder's public key, as well as the digital signature of a certification authority for authentication. The certification  … 
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DIGITAL CERTIFICATES DEFINITION (continued): …  authority attests that the sender's name is the one associated with the public key in the document. A user ID packet, containing the sender's unique identifier, is sent after the certificate packet. There are different types of public key certificates for different functions, such as authorization for a specific action or delegation of authority. Public key certificates are part of a public key infrastructure that deals with digitally signed documents. The other components are public key encryption, trusted third parties (such as the certification authority), and mechanisms for certificate publication … 
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