Technologies

What is a Digital Certificate?

Definition: A digital certificate is a file or electronic password that proves the authenticity of a device, server, or user through the use of cryptography and public key infrastructure (PKI).

Explanation

Digital Certificate explained

The secure electronic transfer of information is required for a wide range of network activities and digital certificates can be seen as ‘electronic passwords’ that facilitate the verification of identities between users during these transactions. Digital certificates need to be issued by a trusted third party known as a Certificate Authority (CA) - the ‘issuer’. The CA provides third-party validation and therefore adds an additional layer of trust and security. When the certificate is digitally signed by the CA, the certificate can be used to establish the identity and secure encryption of the ‘subject’, which can be individuals, businesses and electronic assets such as servers or devices.

A digital certificate, also known as a public key infrastructure (PKI) certificate or an identity document, is used to prove the validity of a public key. Without certificates, someone could send data encrypted with the private key and decrypted with the public key, but there would be no assurance as to where the data originated from. It is in this instance as to why a certificate is so important - digital certificates include the public key being certified, identifying information about the entity that owns the public key (‘subject’), metadata relating to the digital certificate and a digital signature of the public key the certificate issuer created.

Digital Certificate Chart

Source: worldbank.org

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Blog posts

Blog posts

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Understanding the Role of Hardware Security Modules in Digital Signing

The standards mandated by eIDAS work to ensure the integrity of electronic signatures. However, what is also mandated is the need for sufficiently protecting the cryptographic processes.
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The Open Finance API & the requirement for eIDAS Certificates and Qualified Signature Creation Devices

Open Finance is driven by technologies such as open APIs. It is a publicly available application programming interface with programmatic access to a proprietary software application or web service – a set of requirements that control how one application communicates and interacts with another.
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Sole control of one’s signing keys under eIDAS

This blog post takes a look at the details of sole control. Which is the principle that ensures the signer – and no one else but the signer – has access to her/his signing key and can initiate a digital signature.
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eIDAS: The Advantages of QES as compared to AES

Know the main requirements that must be met to be complient for Advanced and Qualified Electronic Signatures with eIDAS electronic transactions in the European internal market.
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Secure Transactions with eIDAS

Under eIDAS, the EU aims to facilitate cross-border digital transactions and pave the way for a Digital Single Market. Qualified electronic signatures and seals play a decisive role with this goal. Read in our article how to benefit from eIDAS.
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