Encryption

Digital Certificates

There is a further aspect to this, which is an SSL Certificate. It is all very well having a reliable and secure way of encrypting your credit card when you send it over the internet, but how do you know that the person you are sending it to really is who they claim to be?

For this, there are companies who will issue a Digital Certificate which effectively says that they have verified that your business details are genuine, and they match information about you to your public key. As a business you have to pay to have a digital certificate and send some documents proving who you are, then you can install the certificate on your web server.

The well known companies providing certificates are automatically recognised by your browser software. If your browser gets a valid digital certificate from a web server, it will allow the connection. If it doesn't (because the web site didn't want to pay to get one) it will usually come up with lots of warnings, but the transaction will still be secure, as it still uses the underlying public/private key system.