A digital signature on an electronic document is equivalent to a personal signature on a written document. A digital signature provides proof of the document's origin. The certificate owner "signs" a document by using the private key that is associated with the certificate. The recipient of the document uses the corresponding public key to decrypt the signature, which verifies the sender as the source.
A Certificate Authority signs certificates that it issues. This signature consists of a data string that is encrypted with the Certificate Authority's private key. Any user can then verify the signature on the certificate by using the Certificate Authority's public key to decrypt the signature.
Before you start using digital certificates to protect your communications, you should understand what they are and what security benefits they provide.
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