0001 Acronyms, Items, Definitions, Examples, Concepts, Illustrations

Introductory article on the nomenclature within this website.

OBJECT:
Acronym: industry initial letters or parts of a series of words
Item: name, person, place, thing of the industry specific item
Definition: explanation or history of the acronym or noun
Example: current or history examples of the acronym of noun
Illustration: a visual representation of the acronym or noun
Notes: comments input by a contributor

IMPLEMENTATION:
Acronym: CA
Item: Certificate Authority
Definition: trusted organization that verifies identities and issues digital certificates [1]
Example: Public: Let’sEncrypt, DigiCert, Sectigo, GlobalSign, cloud providers
Example: Private: Microsoft Active Directory Certificate Services (ADCS), EJBCA Open-source PKI software
Notes: Many say “internal” when PKI people may tend to use “private”

  +------------------+
  |     Browser      |
  +--------+---------+
           | 
           | 1 Request Certificate (CSR)
           v
  +--------+---------+
  |  Cert Authority  | <---+ 2 Signs with Private Key
  +--------+---------+
           |
           | 3 Issues Signed Certificate
           v
  +--------+---------+
  |    Web Server    |
  +------------------+

[1] - What’s a certificate authority? A beginner’s guide to CAs
https://www.digicert.com/blog/what-is-a-certificate-authority