A Digital Certificate is the electronic equivalent of an Identity Document. The Digital Certificate associates a cryptographic key to an identity, in such a way that the latter is reliably linked to the electronic documents on which it is applied.
A Certificate is used to:
- Authenticate the user's identity, in electronic form, before third parties.
- Digitally sign in such a way as to guarantee the integrity of the data transmitted and its origin.
- Encrypt data so that only the recipient of the document can access its content.
The use of a certificate guarantees us:
- The identity of the sender and the receiver of the information (authentication of the parties)
- That the message has not been tampered with during delivery (transaction integrity)
- That only sender and receiver see the information (confidentiality)
- That the recipient of the signature obtains sufficient evidence to prove the relationship between the signatory and the signed data (commitment or non-repudiation)