ValueWeb / GeoTrust FAQ Page What is a GeoTrust Server Certificate?
A GeoTrust certificate is a way to ensure safe transmission of sensitive information (such as personal data or credit card numbers) between client and server by providing identity authentication and data encryption.

What is a Certificate Authority (CA)?
The Certificate Authority (CA) is the organization that creates and regulates the policy and procedure for authenticating, issuing, renewing, and suspending digital certificates. Working with the Registration Authority (RA), the CA authorizes certificates and ensures the legitimacy of participating parties.

What concerns do digital certificates and public key infrastructure address?
Digital certificates and public key infrastructure address four issues:
  1. Confidentiality - was the information received only by the intended recipient?
  2. Authenticity - was the information sent by the person claiming to be the sender?
  3. Integrity - was the information received unaltered?
  4. Binding agreements - can a sender claim that the information received by the intended recipient was never sent? Is this a legally binding document?
How does a digital certificate work?
After authenticating identity, the CA issues digital certificates, which also contain a matched pair of electronic keys, the public key and the private key.

When the customer contacts a website, the public key is sent to the customer, and attaches itself and encrypts data that is transmitted back to the website (such as personal information). Upon receipt, the private key recognizes the public key, and then decrypts the information. A similar exchange of public and private keys occurs to confirm the identity of the parties, thus, ensuring that only the intended recipient has access to the information, so privacy and security is maintained.

What is the Year 2000 Root CA Certificate Expiration Issue?
The Year 2000 certificate expiration issue was a concern for common web browser versions popular before 2000. The problem was that the CA root certificates (used to make online transactions more efficient) within the older browsers suffered from a Y2K error, and would expire in 2000. Today, most people use browsers released after 2000, so this problem is not faced very often. However, those users still employing older versions of browsers may receive an error message stating that the certificate has expired, Updating the browser version will eliminate this problem.

Which browser versions contain root CA certificates expiring on December 31, 1999?
Root CA certificates for both VeriSign and GTE CyberTrust in Netscape browsers up to Release 4.05 will expire in December 1999. Microsoft Internet Explorer is not affected by this issue.

How Can I Contact GeoTrust?
You can receive more information on GeoTrust server certificates here.