Certificate authorities

- Certificate Authorities are a crucial part…of the PKI hierarchy.…Certificate or Registration Authorities,…depending on where they exist in the hierarchy,…have a longer validity period…than a standard-issued certificate,…let's say for a user or a smartphone.…For example, a Certificate Authority might be valid…for 10 years where a certificate issued to a user…for the purposes of e-mail encryption might only be valid…for two years.…It's kind of like having a driver's license…or a passport that expires over time…for security reasons.…

Now, this is determined when you configure your environment…where certificates are issued if you are setting up a PKI.…The Certificate or Registration Authority…then can issue new certificates,…can renew certificates before they expire,…and can also revoke certificates…due to things like security compromise.…The authorities can also publish…a certificate revocation list, or a CRL,…over a variety of protocols, including things like http,…and this certificate revocation list can then be retrieved…