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Digital Certificates
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Buying & Shipping Index
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A digital certificate, also called an authentication certificate, allows you to
confirm that the company you want to deal with actually owns the web site with
which you are connected. You can check if the vendor you're dealing with is
certified once you've established a secure connection. In Netscape browsers
(all versions), click on View and select Document Info. In Microsoft browsers
3.0 and higher, click on File, select Properties and then the Security tab. The
certificate should inform you of the owner of the web site as well as the
certification authority who created the certificate. Once you've established that
you really are dealing with the company you trust, you can relax and shop
online.
Not all companies offering secure links are certified. This doesn't necessarily
mean it is unsafe to send your confidential information to them. If you got the URL
from a trustworthy source, such as a friend or directly from the company you're
dealing with, a digital certificate is a superfluous safeguard. Even without a
digital certificate, as long as you are using a secure connection, the information
is encrypted, and can be decoded only by the party at the other end of the
connection.
A digital certificate is issued by a certificate authority (CA).
Go to: What is a certificate authority?
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