What is a Certification Authority?

The Certification Authority (CA) is a trusted entity responsible for issuing and revoking digital certificates used for electronic signatures and authentication.

Online security is crucial to ensure user privacy and secure transactions. Digital security certificates are an important tool to achieve this, but how can you know that they are authentic and trustworthy? In this article we explain what Certification Authorities (CAs) are and their importance in issuing and verifying digital certificates.

Certification Authorities: what are they and what are they for?
Imagine any CA as a “digital notary” that is in charge of verifying the identity of users in order to issue and verify digital certificates. CAs are trusted organisations or companies that ensure that certificates are authentic and secure.

When a user requests a digital certificate from a CA, the CA performs an identity verification process to ensure that the user is who he/she claims to be. If everything is in order, the CA issues a digital certificate that can be used to encrypt the information transmitted between the user and the recipient. In addition, CAs also revoke certificates if they discover that the entity is no longer trustworthy.

Certification Authorities and digital signatures
In addition to issuing and verifying digital certificates, CAs also play a crucial role in the legality of digital signatures. A digital signature is a way of signing documents anywhere, as legal and binding as a paper signature. This type of signature is based on the use of digital certificates issued by a Certification Authority to verify the identity of the person signing the document.
CAs ensure that the digital certificates used in the digital signature are authentic and secure. This means that digitally signed documents can be used as legal evidence in court, and digitally signed contracts are legally binding. We go into more depth in our publication on the advantages of electronic signatures for SMEs.

Viafirma as a Certification Authority in Dominican Republic:
In the Dominican Republic, Viafirma is one of the Certification Authorities in charge of issuing digital certificates. The issuance of these digital certificates allows citizens and companies to carry out secure online transactions such as tax payments. The digital certificates issued by Viafirma are recognised by the government of the Dominican Republic and comply with international online security standards. If you want to know more details, in this publication we go into more details about our digital signature in Dominican Republic.

Certification Authorities are crucial to guarantee the authenticity and security of digital certificates used online. Just as we trust a notary to verify important documents, we can trust Certification Authorities to issue and verify reliable digital certificates. Viafirma is one of the Certification Authorities in Dominican Republic since 2006, a proof of the reliability and validity of our solutions in compliance with the law. We can help you to automate your processes, contact us and let’s talk.

In Viafirma FAQs you can consult the Certification Service Providers and Certification Authorities supported by Viafirma.

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