X.509 certificates are the foundation of HTTPS, code signing, and email encryption.
Certificate components
- Subject: Who the certificate represents (domain, organization).
- Issuer: The Certificate Authority (CA) that signed it.
- Public Key: Used for encryption and signature verification.
- Validity Period: Start and expiration dates.
- Signature: CA's cryptographic endorsement.
Certificate types
- DV (Domain Validated): Proves domain ownership only.
- OV (Organization Validated): Includes company verification.
- EV (Extended Validation): Highest assurance with legal vetting.
Related Tools
Related Articles
View all articlesBlameless Postmortem Template: How to Run Post-Incident Reviews That Actually Improve Things
A practical guide to blameless postmortems — including a ready-to-use template, facilitation tips, and how to turn incident data into lasting improvements.
Read article →SLA Monitoring: How to Track, Report, and Actually Meet Your Uptime Commitments
Promising 99.9% uptime is easy. Proving it is harder. A practical guide to SLA monitoring — what to measure, how to track it, and what to do when you miss.
Read article →Incident Severity Levels: How to Classify, Escalate, and Respond
A practical guide to defining incident severity levels — from SEV-1 to SEV-5 — with escalation policies, response time targets, and real-world examples.
Read article →DNS Infrastructure Compared: Cloudflare DNS vs Route 53 vs Azure DNS vs Google Cloud DNS
A deep technical comparison of managed DNS services from Cloudflare, AWS Route 53, Azure DNS, and Google Cloud DNS — covering architecture, performance, security, pricing, and strategic implications.
Read article →Explore More PKI & Certificates
View all termsCertificate Transparency (CT)
A public logging system that records all SSL/TLS certificates, enabling detection of misissued or malicious certificates.
Read more →Public Key Infrastructure (PKI)
A framework of policies, processes, and technologies for managing digital certificates and public-key encryption.
Read more →