There are three types of
digital certificates: TrustID Personal, Business,
and Server. Personal certificates authenticate an
individual and are used to digitally sign and
encrypt electronic documents. Business
certificates authenticate the individual to be an
employee of a business and are also used to
digitally sign and encrypt electronic documents.
Server or SSL certificates are issued for Web
servers and are used to authenticate servers to
Web browsers. This is used to protect information
such as credit card numbers and account
information on the Web.
Variations of these three
types of certificates are based on specific
governments and industries. For instance, the US
Department of Defense (DoD) requires all
contractors obtain an IECA certificate. Therefore,
an employee of a company that is doing business
with the DoD will buy an IECA certificate and not
a TrustID Business certificate.
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