Certification Authority: Who emits a digital certificate?

We start a new business year that will allow us to give the last push to close the last quarter of the year. After the summer season, production rhythms are reactivated in companies, employees return to their jobs and, little by little, companies return to their usual routine.

Over the past year, organizations have become accustomed to working in a constantly changing environment and have managed to develop new adaptation skills that allow us to be more flexible and respond with agility to new and unexpected situations.

By now, any professional or expert has already worked with the electronic signature and knows what a digital certificate is, identifying it as the digital key to manage remotely and fully secure numerous procedures, corporate, administrative, financial, labor, etc. documentation. Now, do you know how to get a digital certificate or which authorities are in charge of issuing certificates? In the following lines we tell you what a Certification Authority is and what it is used for.

Issuance of digital certificates: Certification Authority (CA)

First of all, we must know that the digital certificate is like our electronic ID, since it allows us to prove the identity of persons and/or companies on the Internet. It identifies us with full legal validity before the different public organisms when carrying out any telematic transaction and, given the sensitivity of the data, the digital certificate must be issued by a trustworthy entity.

Therefore, in the same way that happens when we show our DNI, which has the confidence of the Ministry of Interior as issuing body, we need to have the confidence of the issuing authority of digital certificates.

Thus arises the figure of Certification Authority (CA Certification Authority or RA Registration Authority). It is responsible for issuing and revoking digital certificates used in digital transactions and electronic signatures. When any transaction is carried out between two parties, between a company or companies and individuals, the CA grants trust and validity to the documents that have been signed by appearing as a third party and, therefore, a non-interested party.

Ivnosys: digital certificate issuer

Cryptographic keys, known as PKCS or Public-Key Cryptography Standards, are essential in the infrastructure of a CA. Thanks to these keys, time stamping is guaranteed, i.e., the exact date and time at which a document has been electronically signed, as well as the identity of the signer and the content of the transactions performed.

Examples of Certification Authorities are the Fábrica Nacional de Moneda y Timbre of Spain (FNMT) or Ivnosys. Thus, the role of a Certification Authority is to provide services such as the issuance of certificates, as well as their renewal and revocation.

In addition, Ivnosys is a Qualified Trust Service Provider according to Regulation (EU) Nº910/2014 (eIDAS), thus achieving that our solutions comply with the highest security standards. Contact us and have the peace of mind of working with the tool that meets the highest quality standards with the backing of a Certification Authority.