Certificate Authority

A certificate authority is responsible for issuing certificates to individuals and organizations. The certificate contains a public key, along with the information that authenticates the owner. Its obligation in such instances is to validate the applicant’s credentials, proving that they are trust worthy to other users looking to make transactions on the web. If a user can trust the issuing certificate authority and verify their credentials, they can also determine if a particular public key actually belongs to the individual named on the certificate. If the certificate authority is compromised or fraudulent, the security of the entire system is obsolete. The industry of certificate authority distribution is fragmented with providers stationed all over the world based on nation or region. This is done because certificates that bind legal signatures are also linked to local laws and regulations. The industry for official SSL certificates is maintained by a small number of multinational organizations. VeriSign is one company that demands most of the market, followed by other certificate issuing services, such as GoDaddy and Comodo.