My Certificate Contact Us Web Certificates and SSL Digital Certificates Defined Digital certificates are electronic files that are used to uniquely identify people and resources over networks such as the Internet and enable secure, confidential communication between two parties. You can think of a digital certificate as your passport on the Internet. For example, when you travel to another country your passport provides a universal way to establish your identity and gain entry.
Digital certificates provide similar identification.
Once a CA has signed a certificate, the holder can present their certificate to people, Web sites, and network resources to prove their identity and establish encrypted, confidential communications. In cryptographic systems, the term key refers to a numerical value used by an algorithm to alter information, making that information secure and visible only to individuals who have the corresponding key to recover the information. The public key can be freely distributed without compromising the private key, which must be kept secret by its owner. Since these keys only work as a pair, an encrypted operation initiated with the public key can only be decrypted with the corresponding private key, and vice-versa. DealSecure offers DealSecure digital certificates issued by Entrust to enable secure online transactions.