A cryptographic certificate or digital certificate is a type of credential that is included with a public key to ensure that the key belongs to a specific user. A cryptographic certificate is similar to a physical certificate such as a birth certificate, passport, or Driver’s License, and is used to verify that a trusted entity has confirmed that the public key belongs to a user. Encrypted servers, email clients, financial institutions, and some individuals often use cryptographic certificates to prove that they are trustworthy.

 

How Cryptographic Certificates Work

Cryptographic certificates include a user’s public key, several forms of the user’s identification, and a digital signature from a trusted entity. For example, a certificate from an encrypted website that Google sponsored may include that website’s URL, the name of the website’s owner, the owner of the website’s email address, the website’s public key, and a digital signature from Google certifying that they have verified that the public key and website does, in fact, belong to that user.

 

Applications

Any individual or entity that wishes to prove his/her/its trustworthiness can use cryptographic certificates, although websites and institutions that often process other users’ financial information in order to prove that they are a trusted organization mostly use them. While certificates can be faked, websites that have a certificate are generally considered more trustworthy than websites that do not.

 

Advantages

Cryptographic certificates are advantageous because they verify that a specific public key belongs to a specific user. As a result of this, cryptographic certificates allow websites that process users’ financial information to ensure their customers that they can be trusted. Cryptographic certificates are also advantageous for communication purposes, such as email encryption, to ensure that a user is transmitting information to the correct public key.