what are digitial certficates

Digital Certificates are electronic documents that ensure security in websites by providing proof and verification that the particular key to the website belongs to a particular individual. There are different categories of digital certificates including those for individual use, for private organizations, for big organizations, for government use, for servers and those used for online business transactions. They are issued to individuals by a non-partisan third party, the Certification Authority (CA).

Regardless of the classification, all digital certifications contain this specific information; the subject which is the owner or entity, the serial number, the algorithm that was used to create the unique signature, validity period, thumbprint and the public key.