Encryption Academy: What Are Digital Certificates?

If you've ever wondered what digital certificates are and how they secure online communication, this course provides the foundational knowledge you need. You’ll explore how digital signatures verify document authenticity, practice creating self-signed certificates, and examine the role of trusted certificate authorities in identity verification and secure access.

Through real-world exercises and clear instruction, you'll learn to manage certificate lifecycles, prevent certificate-related security lapses, and use public key infrastructure (PKI) for strong encryption. Whether you’re handling sensitive data or securing communication channels, this training builds the skills required for modern cybersecurity.

• Create and validate a self-signed certificate
• Understand public and private keys for secure communications
• Analyze certificate fields and trust chains
• Work with TLS certificates and identity certificates
• Learn certificate signing request (CSR) generation and structure
• Recognize certificate authority (CA) roles and PKI operations
• Explore certification path validation using web browsers

By the end, you’ll be ready to implement and troubleshoot digital certificates with clarity and confidence—enhancing your ability to provide access control, support security protocols, and ensure secure, encrypted connections across operating systems. You’ll also understand how certificates protect legal documents, authenticate a web address, and prevent misuse through proper management of the expiration date, allowing only authorized users to gain access to sensitive resources.