Introduction

This Guide is intended to provide general information on the basic concepts, design, deployment and use of the Digi-CA™ Public Key Infrastructure [PKI] system. It is assumed that the audience and readers of this guide have a basic understanding of the concepts of information technology, PKI and the use of X.509 digital public key certificates.

If you are planning to deploy Digi-CA™ inside your organisation, ensure your read this document first, before attempting to perform a new standalone or distributed installation of this system.

In cryptography, a Certificate Authority or Certification Authority [CA] is an entity that issues digital certificates for use by other parties. It is an example of a trusted third party. A CA issues digital certificates that contain a public key and the identity of the public key owner. The matching private key is not similarly made available publicly, but kept secret by the end user who owns the key pair. The certificate is also an attestation by the CA that the public key contained in the certificate belongs to the person, organization, software or hardware device or other entity noted in the certificate. A CA's obligation in such schemes is to verify an applicant's credentials, so that users and relying parties can trust the information in the CA's certificates.