Most Common Types of Digital certificate

Digital Credentials are effective to both the issuer and the recipient. The digital credential can be stored and accessed with ease. The Digital certificate comes with a digital key and digital signature that ensures secure access to the document and avoids unethical hacking or data manipulation.

Digital Certificates has benefited the issuing organization, agencies and educational platforms securing the transaction of recognising the users’ achievements and competency regarding the qualifications.

Although digital certificates are a boon to businesses, it is important to understand the different types of Digital certificates. Let’s discuss below the types of Digital Certificates.

TLS/SSL certificates:

TLS/SSL certificates which stand for Transport Layer Security/ Secure Socket Layer is a type of Digital certificate that ensures the information transfer or communication between the client and the server is secured and encrypted. The server could be an app server or a web server, basically, any server that requires authentication to communicate encrypted information.

SSL certificates use https:// web address where S stands for secure and is encrypted by SSL layer with Transmission Control Protocol TCP layer. SSL certificates could be issued and obtained through a secured certificate authority and require thorough verification.

Code Signing Certificate:

Code signing certificates ensure that the software or file downloaded via the internet is not manipulated or tampered with. The software or file downloaded is signed by its publisher or owner or developer. Code signing certificates also verifies the legitimacy of the sign and code used to develop the software.

Code signing certificates can be purchased from the developer or certified authority. Although for the purchase to happen one needs to meet their authentication process and requirements. Authentication can be done through verification of the notary from the lawyer, identity and financial documents.

Client Certificate:

While SSL certificates verify the domain of the website, the Client certificate or user certificate, as the name suggests, verifies the identity of the user to another user, user to the server or user to the system. It also verifies the identity of the user for devices that require two-factor authentication or requests access to the server.

Client certificate or Digital Ids can be obtained by creating a secure key that pairs with the device to prove the identity to access the server. It can also be obtained through a certified authority after providing identity documents and clearing the authentication process.

In Conclusion:

To make the most of the Digital certificate, businesses need to understand the three common types of certificates and how they need to be obtained. One also needs to understand the authentication process that goes into obtaining the different types of certificates.