Certificates for Secure Servers

A secure server is often a normal server with a secure wrapper around it. This secure wrapper is based on an encrypting protocol known as TLS or SSL. This protocol uses a certificate on the server to authenticate it to arbitrary users.

Secure servers are useful because they encrypt the content that is passed between the client and server system. This means that sensitive information such as credit card numbers cannot be tapped while in transit. So, in effect, if you trust the recipient you can safely transmit these numbers. As a part of this secure procedure, the server identifies and authenticates itself with a server certificate.

Server certificates are data structures that contain the name of the site (for example openfortress.nl) in such a way that a customer can validate it with his client software. A well-known application is that of secure websites which can be authenticated by a browser, but it is equally well possible to secure a server for pop3, imap, ldap or any other protocol that works over the generic TLS/SSL secure wrapper.

Certificates are a bit like passports or driver's licenses: they contain the information to validate the certificate owner, and a digital signature as a proof that this information is authentic. This signature is made by a `trusted party' that can be validated by a user's browser if it has been setup to trust that party.

Although equipped to function as a trusted party, OpenFortress currently chooses to outsource this role to GeoTrust for server certificates. This is because the validation of their certificates works better; it requires the wide-spread acceptance of their root certificates by browsers around the world. GeoTrust root certificates are implicitly trusted by 98% of today's browsers, a number that OpenFortress cannot match. So we think you will have more use for their server certificates.

You can order your certificate for up to three years ahead. As soon as your order is entered, you will be contacted by email for additional information.