FAQ

A Digital Signature Certificate (DSC) is a secure digital key that certifies the identity of the holder, issued by a Certifying Authority (CA). It typically contains your identity (name, email, country, APNIC account name and your public key). Digital Certificates use Public Key Infrastructure meaning data that has been digitally signed or encrypted by a private key can only be decrypted by its corresponding public key. A digital certificate is an electronic “credit card” that establishes your credentials when doing business or other transactions on the Web.

A Digital Signature Certificate (DSC) authenticates your identity electronically. DSC also provides you with a high level of security for your online transactions by ensuring absolute privacy of the information exchanged using a Digital Signature Certificate. You can use certificates to sign/encrypt information such that only the intended recipient can read it. You can digitally sign information to assure the recipient that it has not been changed in transit, and also verify your identity as the sender of the message.

You can use Digital Signature Certificates for the following:

• For sending and receiving digitally signed and encrypted emails.
• For carrying out secure web-based transactions, or to identify other participants of web-based transactions.
• In eTendering, eProcurement, MCA [for Registrar of Companies efiling, Income Tax for efiling income tax returns] Applications and also in many other applications.
• For signing documents like MSWord, MSExcel and PDFs.
• Plays a pivotal role in creating a paperless office.

A Digital Signature Certificate (DSC) explicitly associates the identity of an individual/device with a pair of electronic keys – public and private keys – and this association is endorsed by the CA. The certificate contains information about a user’s identity (for example, their name, pin code, country, email address, the date the certificate was issued and the name of the Certifying Authority that issued it).
These keys complement each other in that one does not function in the absence of the other. They are used by browsers and servers to encrypt and decrypt information regarding the identity of the certificate user during information exchange processes. The private key is stored on the user’s computer hard disk or an external device such as a token. The user retains control of the private key; it can only be used with the issued password.
The public key is disseminated with the encrypted information. The authentication process fails if either one of these keys in not available or does not match. This means that the encrypted data cannot be decrypted and therefore, is inaccessible to unauthorized parties.

Legally valid Digital Signature Certificate (DSC) are issued only through a Controller of Certifying Authorities (CCA), Govt. of India, licensed Registration Authorities (RA), such as Buy Digital Signature Online. Buy Digital Signature Online, a Registration Authorities (RA) licensed by Capricorn CA, offers secure dsc through various options tailored to suit individual as well as organizational needs.

Yes, after the enactment of the Information Technology Act 2000 in India, DSC are legally valid in India. DSC are issued by licensed Certifying Authorities under the Ministry of Information Technology, Government of India as per the Information Technology Act.

A Certifying Authority is a trusted agency whose central responsibility is to issue, revoke, renew and provide directories for Digital Signature Certificates. According to Section 24 of the Information Technology Act 2000, “Certifying Authority” means a person who has been granted a license to issue Digital Signature Certificates.

Digital signature certificates have an explicit start date and an explicit expiration date. Most applications check the validity period of a certificate when the digital certificate is used. The signature certificate expiration date is also used for managing the certificate revocation list (CRL). A certificate is removed from the revocation list when its natural expiration date arrives. As such, generally the shorter the certificate validity period, the shorter the CRL.