ITPEC FE Morning October 2019 Question 39
ITPEC FE Morning October 2019 — Question 39 of 80
PKI Certificate Authority (CA) — role of a trusted third party in public key infrastructure.
A CA (Certificate Authority) issues digital certificates that bind a public key to the identity of a user or server. This allows others to trust that a given public key truly belongs to the claimed entity.
The certificate contains the subject's public key, identity info, and the CA's digital signature — proving the CA vouches for that binding.
Why not others:
- (a) Digital signatures on emails are created by the user using their own private key, not by the CA.
- (b) Time synchronization is handled by NTP servers, not by a CA.
- (c) A CA certifies the public key, never the private key. The private key must remain secret and is never shared or certified.
Key rule: CA certifies public keys — never private keys.
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