What is a digital certificate and how does it relate to SSL?
A digital certificate is an electronic document used to prove the ownership of a public key. It contains information about the identity of the certificate holder, the certificate’s public key, and the digital signature of the certificate-issuing authority. Digital certificates are used in many applications, including secure websites, email encryption, and code signing.
SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is a protocol used to secure communications between a web server and a web browser. It uses digital certificates to authenticate the identity of the web server, and to encrypt the data sent between the two. For example, when you visit a website that uses SSL, the web server will present its digital certificate to your web browser. Your web browser will then verify the certificate against a list of trusted certificate authorities, and if it is valid, it will establish an encrypted connection with the web server.