What is a Digital Certificate, and How Secure is It?

Digital certificates have become a buzzword of late and almost all organizations seem to use them indiscriminately. However, what is a digital certificate, and how secure is it? Keep reading to find out.

What is a digital certificate?

Digital certificates are online documents used to authenticate the identity of a business or associated website. These digital certificates encompass pertinent information about the business or website, like public key, validity period, common name, and organization.?

Their basic function is to encrypt data between a website and the corresponding user’s browser. This keeps the connection secure and prevents curious third-parties from meddling with the data or the connection. These documents digital are also known as TLS or SSL certificates and are issued by authorized parties commonly referred to as the certificate authority.?

For instance, if you’re buying furniture from your favorite home goods brand, the presence of a relevant digital certificate encrypts your credit card data and ensures it doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. Similarly, a digital certificate ascertains that your Netflix account password (or any other password) doesn’t fall into the hands of a bad actor.

But that’s not all. These certificates are your cheatsheet to differentiate between a legitimate website and avoid becoming a victim to digital scams, like phishing. Think of it as the underlying security mechanism that will help you identify Adidas’s actual website from fakes like Adibas or Adidas`. It all sounds good in theory, but let’s check out a real-life example to understand how digital certificates work.

Working Example of a Digital Certificate

A very simple example is you browsing the internet and clicking on a site to consume the content present or interact with the website. When you click on a website’s link, your browser checks the site’s digital certificate to establish a secure (or HTTPS) connection. That’s just the first thing it does.

Subsequently, your browser will also check if the certificate was issued by a relevant certifying authority to understand if it can trust the certificate. Moreover, it checks if the certificate is still valid since most digital certificates are valid for only a year. If all seems in order, the browser will establish a safe connection with the website and allow you to access it.

To apply this example in a real-life scenario, imagine you going to ProofEasy’s website and if you click on the small lock icon in the website’s address bar, you’ll probably see the image below:

However, if you expand the “Connection is secure” tab, your web browser will show you this:

Further, if you click on the “Certificate is valid” option, you’ll be able to see the details of ProofEasy’s digital certificate, learn its common name, its validity, details about the issuing authority, and its SHA-256 fingerprints, including certificate and public key.?

This ensures that the connection is secure and information exchanged between the website and your browser is safe and encrypted. Moreover, your banking or personal details won’t be easily available to any hacker or third party who’s interested in it.

Although digital certificates indicate that a website is safe for browsing, they are not without their drawbacks. This raises the question: How secure is a digital certificate? Let’s find out.

How Secure is a Digital Certificate?

A digital certificate isn’t immune to online attacks and bad actors. Case in point: data leaks across the globe. Here’s the list of the most vulnerable spots of a digital certificate:

• Certificate authorities could be intercepted: Although a certifying authority is the trusted third party used to authenticate the details of a website, they might be intercepted by bad actors. If that happens, the hackers can issue fake digital signature certificates for organizations and websites and use them to steal confidential information and attack your browser with malware.
• Digital certificates can be used to carry out sophisticated phishing attacks: A sophisticated and smart attacker might be able to forge not only a real-looking digital certificate but also a fake website. The digital certificate will ensure the site faces no friction from your web browser and passes its scrutiny. However, the information you enter into the website can be easily stolen by the attackers, including your PII (personally identifiable information).
• Websites with an expired certificate pose a risk, too: Suppose the website you want to access has an expired (or invalid) digital certificate. Under such circumstances, your browser will warn of the danger ahead and show you an error message, making it challenging for you to access the site. You’d think the crisis has been averted, but you’d be wrong because bad actors might use an expired certificate to attack your browser.
• Encryption not up-to-date: Even though most websites use the latest encryption technology, some older websites might still be using older versions that are weaker in comparison and thus vulnerable to attacks.
• Misconfiguration can spell trouble: While digital certificates are your first line of defense when trying to access a website, it won’t be effective in keeping your data safe or encrypting the exchanged information unless it’s configured adequately.?

In this regard, misconfigured digital certificates are worse than a website not having a digital certificate since in the case of the latter, your browser will generate an error message and prevent you from accessing it. However, a misconfigured digital certificate will bypass your browser’s security mechanisms and leave the door wide open for online fraudsters to pounce.

That being said, proper management and routine maintenance of the website will keep bad actors out and keep user data safe. Looking to issue digital certificates for your employees or students? Try out ProofEasy’s blockchain and QR code technology today!