You have probably often seen a web address starting with 'https' and the little lock symbol at the bottom of the browser. Both of these tell you that your connection to that website is over a secure link. This means that the data you exchange with that website is encrypted and protected from prying eyes.

So while the link is secure, how do you know who the people are on the other end of the link? This is where a Certificate Authority, or CA, comes in. The purpose of the CA is to issue digital certificates to people and companies that verify they are who they say they are. It essentially verifies the credentials of the company you are dealing with.

Some common CA providers are VeriSign, Thawte, and GeoTrust. Before issuing the CA these companies conduct a careful authentication process to be sure the CA requester is legitimate. If all checks out a CA is issued.

If you have a company that will be selling products on the web, you will probably need to apply for a digital certificate from a CA. To make this easier OvalEye would be happy to help you in this process.

To see an example CA click on the GeoTrust icon at the bottom of any page in our site. Look for similar icons on other sites as well.

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