digital certificate

The digital sibling of an identification card, it is used in conjunction with a public key encryption system to identify a person.

Digital certificates are issued by a third party (known as a certificate authority) and are included in the transmission of an encrypted message (to prove that the sender is the person he or she claims to be). A digital certificate is an important component in e-commerce and data security transmissions. The two most prominent companies providing digital certificate services are VeriSign and GTE.