What is a Certificate Authority (CA)?

Certificate Authority (CA)

A Certificate Authority (CA) is a trusted entity that issues digital certificates, which are used to verify the identity of users, devices, or organisations in secure communications.

Digital certificates are crucial for establishing trust in activities such as HTTPS connections, email encryption, and digital signatures. The CA validates the entity requesting the certificate and then signs it, creating a chain of trust.

Compromise of a CA can undermine the entire public key infrastructure (PKI), making it a critical component in cybersecurity.