Symmetric Key Algorithms

15. Certificate Authority

In addition to verifying identities, the CA also creates the digital certificate. Once the digital certificate is issued, the CA then gives that user a public key, and separately stores the privet key if it's required. A CA should also contain a certification practice statement (CPS) which gives guidelines on how to verify identities.

The components of a Certificate Authority include: software, hardware, providers, human validation system, and policies as illustrated in Figure 6.