Back product1.shtml Next

Digital Certificates - What are they?

  • aka Digital IDs
  • Digital Equivalent to driver licenses, passports, etc.
  • Proof of identity, or right of access
  • Bind an identity to a pair of electronic keys (pub/priv), thereby preventing people from using phony keys to impersonate people
    • e.g. Tim could generate a pub/priv set of keys with my name and information
  • Typically contained in an ID
    • Public Key
    • Name
    • Expiration date of the Key
    • Certification Authority that issued ID
    • Serial number of the ID
    • Digital Signature of the CA
  • Most widely accepted format : CCITT X.509 International standard
  • Some Certification Authorities (CA)
    • AT&T Certificate Services
    • GTE CyberTrust
    • US POstal Service
    • BBN Certificate Services


Copyright 1997 by Slackers Union. Comments should go to any of the group members. Opinions reflected on this page are by no means opinions of UCSD. Go sue somebody else.

Last Modified: June 1st, 1997