certificate authorities

Definition/Scope: An authority in a network that issues and manages security credentials and public keys for message encryption. As part of a public key infrastructure, a certificate authority checks with a registration authority to verify information provided by the requestor of a digital certificate. If the registration authority verifies the requestor's information, the certificate authority can then issue a certificate.

Used For:

certification authorities

Acronym:

CA

Broader Terms:

public key infrastructure

Related Terms:

registration authorities